classes ::: most, the, noun, adjective, keywords, temp,
children :::
branches :::

bookmarks: Instances - Definitions - Quotes - Chapters - Wordnet - Webgen


object:the most important
object:the essential condition
object:important
object:most important

--- NOTES
2020-09-10 -
Remembering God is most important, and increasing that. removing things that reduce it.
Turning towards God, measuring and increasing that.
Also moving towards God, increasing that, removing things that reduce it.
Divine Presence always.
read Savitri everyday to always.
find the Soul, find The Mother hidden within.
The 3 and 4 aspects/relations of God. (TUI) (

Next, the practice of this Yoga demands a constant inward remembrance of the one central liberating knowledge, and a constant active externalising of it in works comes in too to intensify the remembrance. In all is the one Self, the one Divine is all; all are in the Divine, all are the Divine and there is nothing else in the universe, - this thought or this faith is the whole background until it becomes the whole substance of the consciousness of the worker.

rip all definitions from this page ::: http://www.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com/index.php/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo/02-other-editions/glossary-and-index-of-proper-names-in-sri-aurobindos-works/04-Glossary-and-Index-Page-1-to-12-Vol-glossary-and-index-of-proper-names-in-sri-aurobindos-works
rip all summaries from this page ::: http://www.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com/index.php/savitri-study/book-savitri-study

God_verbs ::: remember, think, find, aspire, concentrate, move, turn, seek, realise,

--- QUOTES
To want only what the Divine wants in us and for us, is the one important thing.
  ~ The Mother Words Of The Mother - II, The True Aim of Life

Sweet Mother how can we find the Divine who is hidden in us?
... This we have explained many, many times. But the first thing is to want it, and know precisely that this comes first, before all other things, that this is the important thing. That is the first condition; all the rest may come later, this is the essential condition. You see, if once in a while, from time to time, when you have nothing to do and all goes well and you are unoccupied, suddenly you tell yourself, Ah, I would like so much to find the Divine! - well, this - it may take a hundred thousand years, in this way.
~ The Mother Questions And Answers 1954, [T2]

--- MUST DO:
integral theory is great, but integral yoga. that is key. obviously.
--- as my first wish is never to lose him.
so it would be smart to stabilize him there permanently so i can go with him in death.
that is a good first. simple, obvious, key.
but only a key for the fear of next life.
but it would be good in general. permanent connection.
and that is my problem. i lose him constantly. hardly do I remember.
or always I do? but do I always have?
constant presence

the importance of resisting lower movements:

class:most
class:the
word class:noun
word class:adjective
class:keywords
class:temp




see also :::

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now begins generated list of local instances, definitions, quotes, instances in chapters, wordnet info if available and instances among weblinks


OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS
SEE ALSO


AUTH

BOOKS
Big_Mind,_Big_Heart
Blazing_the_Trail_from_Infancy_to_Enlightenment
Full_Circle
Let_Me_Explain
Letters_On_Yoga
Letters_On_Yoga_III
Life_without_Death
Plotinus_-_Complete_Works_Vol_01
The_Divine_Milieu
The_Essential_Songs_of_Milarepa
The_Republic
The_Use_and_Abuse_of_History
The_Way_of_Perfection
The_Yoga_Sutras
Toward_the_Future

IN CHAPTERS TITLE
1956-03-21_-_Identify_with_the_Divine_-_The_Divine,_the_most_important_thing_in_life

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT
0.04_-_Letters_to_a_Sadhak
0.05_-_Letters_to_a_Child
0.06_-_Letters_to_a_Young_Sadhak
0.10_-_Letters_to_a_Young_Captain
0_1954-08-25_-_what_is_this_personality?_and_when_will_she_come?
0_1957-11-12
0_1960-10-08
0_1961-03-17
0_1961-06-02
0_1961-09-23
0_1961-10-15
0_1961-12-20
0_1962-08-28
0_1963-02-19
0_1963-07-20
0_1964-10-14
0_1966-11-26
0_1967-02-18
0_1967-03-04
0_1967-03-29
0_1967-04-19
0_1967-04-22
0_1967-06-14
0_1967-07-15
0_1967-07-26
0_1968-09-07
0_1968-11-02
0_1969-01-22
0_1969-09-13
0_1969-11-05
0_1970-01-28
0_1970-04-29
0_1973-01-20
04.02_-_Human_Progress
05.07_-_The_Observer_and_the_Observed
07.10_-_Diseases_and_Accidents
07.17_-_Why_Do_We_Forget_Things?
07.38_-_Past_Lives_and_the_Psychic_Being
07.43_-_Music_Its_Origin_and_Nature
08.26_-_Faith_and_Progress
08.34_-_To_Melt_into_the_Divine
09.18_-_The_Mother_on_Herself
1.00c_-_DIVISION_C_-_THE_ETHERIC_BODY_AND_PRANA
1.00e_-_DIVISION_E_-_MOTION_ON_THE_PHYSICAL_AND_ASTRAL_PLANES
1.00_-_PREFACE
1.01_-_Economy
1.01_-_Necessity_for_knowledge_of_the_whole_human_being_for_a_genuine_education.
1.01_-_THAT_ARE_THOU
1.01_-_The_True_Aim_of_Life
1.02_-_Groups_and_Statistical_Mechanics
1.02_-_MAPS_OF_MEANING_-_THREE_LEVELS_OF_ANALYSIS
1.02_-_Meditating_on_Tara
1.02_-_On_the_Knowledge_of_God.
1.02_-_The_Eternal_Law
1.02_-_The_Magic_Circle
1.02_-_THE_NATURE_OF_THE_GROUND
1.02_-_What_is_Psycho_therapy?
1.031_-_Intense_Aspiration
1.03_-_Concerning_the_Archetypes,_with_Special_Reference_to_the_Anima_Concept
1.03_-_Eternal_Presence
1.03_-_Preparing_for_the_Miraculous
1.03_-_THE_GRAND_OPTION
1.03_-_The_Syzygy_-_Anima_and_Animus
1.04_-_Of_other_imperfections_which_these_beginners_are_apt_to_have_with_respect_to_the_third_sin,_which_is_luxury.
1.04_-_Religion_and_Occultism
1.04_-_THE_APPEARANCE_OF_ANOMALY_-_CHALLENGE_TO_THE_SHARED_MAP
1.04_-_The_Divine_Mother_-_This_Is_She
1.04_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda
1.04_-_The_Paths
1.04_-_Yoga_and_Human_Evolution
1.05_-_Mental_Education
1.05_-_Problems_of_Modern_Psycho_therapy
1.05_-_Solitude
1.05_-_Some_Results_of_Initiation
1.05_-_The_Activation_of_Human_Energy
1.05_-_THE_HOSTILE_BROTHERS_-_ARCHETYPES_OF_RESPONSE_TO_THE_UNKNOWN
1.06_-_Dhyana
1.06_-_Magicians_as_Kings
1.06_-_Psychic_Education
1.06_-_The_Sign_of_the_Fishes
1.06_-_The_Three_Schools_of_Magick_1
1.06_-_Wealth_and_Government
1.07_-_A_Song_of_Longing_for_Tara,_the_Infallible
1.07_-_Incarnate_Human_Gods
1.07_-_On_Our_Knowledge_of_General_Principles
1.07_-_Past,_Present_and_Future
1.07_-_The_Continuity_of_Consciousness
1.07_-_The_Ego_and_the_Dualities
1.07_-_The_Magic_Wand
1.07_-_The_Three_Schools_of_Magick_2
1.08_-_Psycho_therapy_Today
1.08_-_The_Four_Austerities_and_the_Four_Liberations
1.08_-_The_Historical_Significance_of_the_Fish
1.09_-_Equality_and_the_Annihilation_of_Ego
1.09_-_Fundamental_Questions_of_Psycho_therapy
1.09_-_Man_-_About_the_Body
1.09_-_Stead_and_Maskelyne
1.1.05_-_The_Siddhis
1.10_-_ALICE'S_EVIDENCE
1.10_-_The_Image_of_the_Oceans_and_the_Rivers
1.11_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_AT_DAKSHINEWAR
1.1.2_-_Commentary
1.12_-_The_Herds_of_the_Dawn
1.12_-_Truth_and_Knowledge
1.13_-_Gnostic_Symbols_of_the_Self
1.14_-_The_Book_of_Magic_Formulae
1.14_-_The_Suprarational_Beauty
1.15_-_In_the_Domain_of_the_Spirit_Beings
1.15_-_Sex_Morality
1.15_-_THE_DIRECTIONS_AND_CONDITIONS_OF_THE_FUTURE
1.16_-_Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Evocational_Magic
1.17_-_Astral_Journey__Example,_How_to_do_it,_How_to_Verify_your_Experience
1.17_-_Religion_as_the_Law_of_Life
1.18_-_Further_rules_for_the_Tragic_Poet.
1.201_-_Socrates
1.2.03_-_Purity
1.20_-_The_Hound_of_Heaven
1.23_-_Conditions_for_the_Coming_of_a_Spiritual_Age
1.240_-_Talks_2
1.31_-_Continues_the_same_subject._Explains_what_is_meant_by_the_Prayer_of_Quiet._Gives_several_counsels_to_those_who_experience_it._This_chapter_is_very_noteworthy.
1.400_-_1.450_Talks
14.02_-_Occult_Experiences
1.439
1.45_-_Unserious_Conduct_of_a_Pupil
1.48_-_Morals_of_AL_-_Hard_to_Accept,_and_Why_nevertheless_we_Must_Concur
1.550_-_1.600_Talks
1.57_-_Public_Scapegoats
1.59_-_Geomancy
1.63_-_Fear,_a_Bad_Astral_Vision
1.63_-_The_Interpretation_of_the_Fire-Festivals
1.83_-_Epistola_Ultima
1929-06-30_-_Repulsion_felt_towards_certain_animals,_etc_-_Source_of_evil,_Formateurs_-_Material_world
1929-07-28_-_Art_and_Yoga_-_Art_and_life_-_Music,_dance_-_World_of_Harmony
1951-02-03_-_What_is_Yoga?_for_what?_-_Aspiration,_seeking_the_Divine._-_Process_of_yoga,_renouncing_the_ego.
1951-02-12_-_Divine_force_-_Signs_indicating_readiness_-_Weakness_in_mind,_vital_-_concentration_-_Divine_perception,_human_notion_of_good,_bad_-_Conversion,_consecration_-_progress_-_Signs_of_entering_the_path_-_kinds_of_meditation_-_aspiration
1951-03-05_-_Disasters-_the_forces_of_Nature_-_Story_of_the_charity_Bazar_-_Liberation_and_law_-_Dealing_with_the_mind_and_vital-_methods
1951-03-26_-_Losing_all_to_gain_all_-_psychic_being_-_Transforming_the_vital_-_physical_habits_-_the_subconscient_-_Overcoming_difficulties_-_weakness,_an_insincerity_-_to_change_the_world_-_Psychic_source,_flash_of_experience_-_preparation_for_yoga
1951-04-07_-_Origin_of_Evil_-_Misery-_its_cause
1951-04-17_-_Unity,_diversity_-_Protective_envelope_-_desires_-_consciousness,_true_defence_-_Perfection_of_physical_-_cinema_-_Choice,_constant_and_conscious_-_law_of_ones_being_-_the_One,_the_Multiplicity_-_Civilization-_preparing_an_instrument
1951-04-28_-_Personal_effort_-_tamas,_laziness_-_Static_and_dynamic_power_-_Stupidity_-_psychic_and_intelligence_-_Philosophies-_different_languages_-_Theories_of_Creation_-_Surrender_of_ones_being_and_ones_work
1953-04-01
1953-05-27
1953-06-10
1953-06-24
1953-07-01
1953-07-22
1953-09-16
1953-10-07
1953-12-30
1954-07-28_-_Money_-_Ego_and_individuality_-_The_shadow
1954-08-25_-_Ananda_aspect_of_the_Mother_-_Changing_conditions_in_the_Ashram_-_Ascetic_discipline_-_Mothers_body
1954-09-15_-_Parts_of_the_being_-_Thoughts_and_impulses_-_The_subconscient_-_Precise_vocabulary_-_The_Grace_and_difficulties
1954-09-29_-_The_right_spirit_-_The_Divine_comes_first_-_Finding_the_Divine_-_Mistakes_-_Rejecting_impulses_-_Making_the_consciousness_vast_-_Firm_resolution
1954-10-06_-_What_happens_is_for_the_best_-_Blaming_oneself_-Experiences_-_The_vital_desire-soul_-Creating_a_spiritual_atmosphere_-Thought_and_Truth
1954-12-29_-_Difficulties_and_the_world_-_The_experience_the_psychic_being_wants_-_After_death_-Ignorance
1955-02-23_-_On_the_sense_of_taste,_educating_the_senses_-_Fasting_produces_a_state_of_receptivity,_drawing_energy_-_The_body_and_food
1955-04-06_-_Freuds_psychoanalysis,_the_subliminal_being_-_The_psychic_and_the_subliminal_-_True_psychology_-_Changing_the_lower_nature_-_Faith_in_different_parts_of_the_being_-_Psychic_contact_established_in_all_in_the_Ashram
1955-05-18_-_The_Problem_of_Woman_-_Men_and_women_-_The_Supreme_Mother,_the_new_creation_-_Gods_and_goddesses_-_A_story_of_Creation,_earth_-_Psychic_being_only_on_earth,_beings_everywhere_-_Going_to_other_worlds_by_occult_means
1955-06-15_-_Dynamic_realisation,_transformation_-_The_negative_and_positive_side_of_experience_-_The_image_of_the_dry_coconut_fruit_-_Purusha,_Prakriti,_the_Divine_Mother_-_The_Truth-Creation_-_Pralaya_-_We_are_in_a_transitional_period
1955-06-22_-_Awakening_the_Yoga-shakti_-_The_thousand-petalled_lotus-_Reading,_how_far_a_help_for_yoga_-_Simple_and_complicated_combinations_in_men
1956-01-25_-_The_divine_way_of_life_-_Divine,_Overmind,_Supermind_-_Material_body__for_discovery_of_the_Divine_-_Five_psychological_perfections
1956-03-14_-_Dynamic_meditation_-_Do_all_as_an_offering_to_the_Divine_-_Significance_of_23.4.56._-_If_twelve_men_of_goodwill_call_the_Divine
1956-03-21_-_Identify_with_the_Divine_-_The_Divine,_the_most_important_thing_in_life
1956-11-14_-_Conquering_the_desire_to_appear_good_-_Self-control_and_control_of_the_life_around_-_Power_of_mastery_-_Be_a_great_yogi_to_be_a_good_teacher_-_Organisation_of_the_Ashram_school_-_Elementary_discipline_of_regularity
1957-04-10_-_Sports_and_yoga_-_Organising_ones_life
1957-05-08_-_Vital_excitement,_reason,_instinct
1957-07-24_-_The_involved_supermind_-_The_new_world_and_the_old_-_Will_for_progress_indispensable
1957-10-02_-_The_Mind_of_Light_-_Statues_of_the_Buddha_-_Burden_of_the_past
1958-06-18_-_Philosophy,_religion,_occultism,_spirituality
1f.lovecraft_-_The_Last_Test
1f.lovecraft_-_The_Mound
1.rb_-_Paracelsus_-_Part_V_-_Paracelsus_Attains
2.01_-_On_the_Concept_of_the_Archetype
2.01_-_THE_ADVENT_OF_LIFE
2.02_-_Habit_2__Begin_with_the_End_in_Mind
2.02_-_On_Letters
2.02_-_The_Ishavasyopanishad_with_a_commentary_in_English
2.03_-_THE_ENIGMA_OF_BOLOGNA
2.04_-_Agni,_the_Illumined_Will
2.05_-_Aspects_of_Sadhana
2.05_-_On_Poetry
2.07_-_The_Mother__Relations_with_Others
2.0_-_THE_ANTICHRIST
2.1.03_-_Man_and_Superman
2.12_-_The_Origin_of_the_Ignorance
2.1.3.1_-_Students
2.1.3.4_-_Conduct
2.13_-_On_Psychology
2.1.4.1_-_Teachers
2.1.4.3_-_Discipline
2.1.5.4_-_Arts
2.18_-_ON_GREAT_EVENTS
2.18_-_The_Evolutionary_Process_-_Ascent_and_Integration
2.19_-_Feb-May_1939
2.2.01_-_The_Problem_of_Consciousness
2.2.01_-_Work_and_Yoga
2.22_-_The_Feminine_Polarity_of_ZO
2.3.01_-_Aspiration_and_Surrender_to_the_Mother
2.3.1_-_Ego_and_Its_Forms
2.3.3_-_Anger_and_Violence
29.04_-_Mothers_Playground
3.00.2_-_Introduction
3.00_-_The_Magical_Theory_of_the_Universe
3.01_-_Natural_Morality
3.01_-_The_Soul_World
3.02_-_SOL
3.02_-_The_Psychology_of_Rebirth
3.05_-_SAL
3.06_-_Death
3.0_-_THE_ETERNAL_RECURRENCE
3.11_-_Epilogue
3.17_-_Of_the_License_to_Depart
3.18_-_Of_Clairvoyance_and_the_Body_of_Light
32.07_-_The_God_of_the_Scientist
3.20_-_Of_the_Eucharist
3.21_-_Of_Black_Magic
33.06_-_Alipore_Court
3.3.2_-_Doctors_and_Medicines
3.4.2_-_Guru_Yoga
3-5_Full_Circle
3.7.1.04_-_Rebirth_and_Soul_Evolution
3_-_Commentaries_and_Annotated_Translations
4.1.2_-_The_Difficulties_of_Human_Nature
4.1.4_-_Resistances,_Sufferings_and_Falls
4.14_-_The_Power_of_the_Instruments
4.2.2_-_Steps_towards_Overcoming_Difficulties
4.2.5.01_-_Psychisation_and_Spiritualisation
4.4.1.03_-_Both_Ascent_and_Descent_Necessary
5_-_The_Phenomenology_of_the_Spirit_in_Fairytales
6.02_-_STAGES_OF_THE_CONJUNCTION
6.06_-_SELF-KNOWLEDGE
6.0_-_Conscious,_Unconscious,_and_Individuation
7_-_Yoga_of_Sri_Aurobindo
9.99_-_Glossary
Aeneid
Blazing_P1_-_Preconventional_consciousness
BOOK_II._--_PART_I._ANTHROPOGENESIS.
BOOK_II._--_PART_II._THE_ARCHAIC_SYMBOLISM_OF_THE_WORLD-RELIGIONS
BOOK_I._--_PART_I._COSMIC_EVOLUTION
BOOK_I._--_PART_III._SCIENCE_AND_THE_SECRET_DOCTRINE_CONTRASTED
BOOK_I._--_PART_II._THE_EVOLUTION_OF_SYMBOLISM_IN_ITS_APPROXIMATE_ORDER
Book_of_Imaginary_Beings_(text)
DS3
ENNEAD_01.03_-_Of_Dialectic,_or_the_Means_of_Raising_the_Soul_to_the_Intelligible_World.
ENNEAD_04.03_-_Psychological_Questions.
ENNEAD_04.06a_-_Of_Sensation_and_Memory.
ENNEAD_06.02_-_The_Categories_of_Plotinos.
ENNEAD_06.05_-_The_One_and_Identical_Being_is_Everywhere_Present_In_Its_Entirety.345
Gorgias
Liber_46_-_The_Key_of_the_Mysteries
r1912_01_13
r1912_01_17
r1912_07_01
r1912_07_22
r1912_12_25
r1913_12_18
r1914_05_14
Sayings_of_Sri_Ramakrishna_(text)
Sophist
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_1
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_2
The_Act_of_Creation_text
Theaetetus
The_Anapanasati_Sutta__A_Practical_Guide_to_Mindfullness_of_Breathing_and_Tranquil_Wisdom_Meditation
The_Dwellings_of_the_Philosophers
the_Eternal_Wisdom
The_Gold_Bug
The_Gospel_According_to_Mark
The_Library_Of_Babel_2
Timaeus

PRIMARY CLASS

keywords
most
temp
the
SIMILAR TITLES
the most important

DEFINITIONS


TERMS STARTING WITH

The most important infinite cardinal number is the cardinal number of the class of inductive cardinal numbers (0, 1, 2, . . .); it is called aleph-zero and symbolized by a Hebrew letter aleph followed by an inferior 0.

The most important thing for this purifiration of the heart is an absolute sincerity. No pretence with oneself, no conceal- ment from the Divine, or oneself, or the Guru, a straight look at one’s movements, a straight will to make them strai^t.


TERMS ANYWHERE

Adamic Earth or Adam’s Earth The “original matter” of alchemy; undifferentiated matter on our plane. Called the true oil of gold or the primal element in alchemy, “it is but one remove from the pure homogeneous element” (TG 6). It is the “next-door neighbor to the alkahest, and one of the most important secrets of the alchemists. . . . ‘it would explain the eagles of the alchemists, and how the eagles’ wings are clipped,’ a secret that it took Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes) twenty years to learn” (IU 1:51).

akali-Mahasarasvati (Mahakali-Mahasaraswati; Mahakali Mahasaraswati) ::: the combination of Mahakali (bhava) and Mahasarasvati (bhava), in which Mahakali "imparts to the slow and difficult labour after perfection an impetus that multiplies the power and shortens the long way". For Sri Aurobindo"s sadhana as documented in the Record of Yoga, this was the most important of the various

akunin shoki. (惡人正機). In Japanese, lit. "evil people have the right capacity"; the emblematic teaching of the JoDO SHINSHu teacher SHINRAN (1173-1263), which suggests that AMITABHA's compassion is directed primarily to evildoers. When AmitAbha was still the monk named DHARMAKARA, he made a series of forty-eight vows (PRAnIDHANA) that he promised to fulfill before he became a buddha. The most important of these vows to much of the PURE LAND tradition is the eighteenth, in which he vows that all beings who call his name will be reborn in his pure land of SUKHAVATĪ. This prospect of salvation has nothing to do with whether one is a monk or layperson, man or woman, saint or sinner, learned or ignorant. In this doctrine, Shinran goes so far as to claim that if a good man can be reborn in the pure land, so much more so can an evil man. This is because the good man remains attached to the delusion that his virtuous deeds will somehow bring about his salvation, while the evil man has abandoned this conceit and accepts that only through AmitAbha's grace will rebirth in the pure land be won.

androgens: hormones whose functions are related to masculine characteristics; the most important is testosterone.

arnica ::: n. --> A genus of plants; also, the most important species (Arnica montana), native of the mountains of Europe, used in medicine as a narcotic and stimulant.

As a school of Greek and Latin philosophers, Plotinism lasted until the fifth century. Porphyry, Apuleius, Jamblichus, Julian the Apostate, Themistius, Simplicius, Macrobius and Proclus are the most important representatives. Through St. Augustine, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, John Scotus Eriugena, and the Greek Fathers, Plotinian thought has been partly incorporated into Christian intellectualism. Nearly all prominent Arabian philosophers before Averroes are influenced by Plotinus, this is particularly true of Avicenna and Algazel. In the Jewish tradition Avicebron's Fons Vitae is built on the frame of the emanation theory. Master Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa continue the movement. It is spiritually related to some modern anti-intellectualistic and mystical currents of thought. Plotin, Enneades, (Greek text and French transl.) by E. Brehier, (Bude), 6 vol., Paris, 1930-40. Mackenna, S., The Enneads of Plotinus, London, 1917-1919. Heinemann, F., Plotin, Leipzig, 1921. Brehier, E., La philosophie de Plotin, Paris, 1928. Inge, W. R., The Philosophy of Plotinus, 2 vol., 2rd ed., London and N. Y., 1929.

Aster’t (Syrian) Goddess of the moon, consort of Adon, one of the most important divinities of Syria, corresponding closely to the Jewish Adonai. See also ASTARTE

ASTROLOGY, ESOTERIC The knowledge of the relations of our solar system and our planet to other solar systems, of the exchange of interstellar and interplanetary energies, once was one of the most important sciences in mankind's possession. The people that got farthest in this respect were the Chaldeans of some 30 000 years ago. Fortunately, we can look forward to the time when the individuals who acquired this knowledge in Chaldea will incarnate again and once more present mankind with the esoteric &

axiomatic set theory "theory" One of several approaches to {set theory}, consisting of a {formal language} for talking about sets and a collection of {axioms} describing how they behave. There are many different {axiomatisations} for set theory. Each takes a slightly different approach to the problem of finding a theory that captures as much as possible of the intuitive idea of what a set is, while avoiding the {paradoxes} that result from accepting all of it, the most famous being {Russell's paradox}. The main source of trouble in naive set theory is the idea that you can specify a set by saying whether each object in the universe is in the "set" or not. Accordingly, the most important differences between different axiomatisations of set theory concern the restrictions they place on this idea (known as "comprehension"). {Zermelo Fränkel set theory}, the most commonly used axiomatisation, gets round it by (in effect) saying that you can only use this principle to define subsets of existing sets. NBG (von Neumann-Bernays-Goedel) set theory sort of allows comprehension for all {formulae} without restriction, but distinguishes between two kinds of set, so that the sets produced by applying comprehension are only second-class sets. NBG is exactly as powerful as ZF, in the sense that any statement that can be formalised in both theories is a theorem of ZF if and only if it is a theorem of ZFC. MK (Morse-Kelley) set theory is a strengthened version of NBG, with a simpler axiom system. It is strictly stronger than NBG, and it is possible that NBG might be consistent but MK inconsistent. {NF (http://math.boisestate.edu/~holmes/holmes/nf.html)} ("New Foundations"), a theory developed by Willard Van Orman Quine, places a very different restriction on comprehension: it only works when the formula describing the membership condition for your putative set is "stratified", which means that it could be made to make sense if you worked in a system where every set had a level attached to it, so that a level-n set could only be a member of sets of level n+1. (This doesn't mean that there are actually levels attached to sets in NF). NF is very different from ZF; for instance, in NF the universe is a set (which it isn't in ZF, because the whole point of ZF is that it forbids sets that are "too large"), and it can be proved that the {Axiom of Choice} is false in NF! ML ("Modern Logic") is to NF as NBG is to ZF. (Its name derives from the title of the book in which Quine introduced an early, defective, form of it). It is stronger than ZF (it can prove things that ZF can't), but if NF is consistent then ML is too. (2003-09-21)

BARBARISM, STAGE OF The first or lowest of man&

Bayon. One of the most important Buddhist temples sites at ANGKOR THOM, the temple-city of the ancient Khmer kingdom; built by the Khmer king Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-c. 1220). The Bayon is a funerary temple located at the center of the Angkor Thom city complex. Constructed of sandstone and in the form of a terraced pyramid, the Bayon represents among other symbols Mt. SUMERU, the axis mundi of the Hindu-Buddhist universe. The temple is entered through four doorways, one on each side, that lead through galleries richly carved with bas-reliefs depicting scenes from contemporary life and Hindu mythology. The temple is crowned with fifty-two towers, the largest of which occupies the center and pinnacle of the structure. The four sides of every tower bear colossal guardian faces that are believed to be portraits of Jayavarman VII in the guise of the bodhisattva AVALOKITEsVARA. The Bayon is the first of Angkor's many temples specifically dedicated to a MAHAYANA Buddhist cult; those built earlier were exclusively Hindu in affiliation. Beneath the central tower is a chamber that once housed a buddha image protected by a hooded cobra. This image was situated above a receptacle intended to receive the king's ashes at death. The Bayon thus combines the function and architectural elements of a Hindu temple and a Buddhist STuPA, while Jayavarman's identification with Avalokitesvara was but an extension of Angkor's long-standing Hindu devarAjan (divine king) cult.

bodhimanda. (T. byang chub snying po; C. daochang; J. dojo; K. toryang 道場). In Sanskrit (and very late PAli), "seat of enlightenment" or "platform of enlightenment," the place in BODHGAYA under the BODHI TREE where the Buddha sat when he achieved liberation from the cycle of birth and death (SAMSARA). (The word manda in this compound refers to the scum that forms on the top of boiling rice or the heavy cream that rises to the top of milk, thus suggesting the observable and most essential signs of the supreme act of BODHI, or enlightenment. Note that Western literature sometimes wrongly transcribes the term as *bodhimandala rather than bodhimanda.) All buddhas are associated with such a place, and it is presumed that all BODHISATTVAs of this world system as well will sit on such a seat before attaining buddhahood. The term is also used to refer to the region surrounding the seat itself, which, in the case of sAKYAMUNI, is BodhgayA. The bodhimanda is also known as the VAJRASANA ("diamond seat"), since it is the only site on earth strong enough to bear the pressures unleashed by the battle for enlightenment. Buddhist iconography often depicts the Buddha just prior to his enlightenment sitting on the bodhimanda in the "earth-touching gesture" (BHuMISPARsAMUDRA), i.e., with his right hand touching the ground, calling the earth to bear witness to his achievement. The bodhimanda is often said to be the center or navel of the world and thus can be understood as what early scholars of religion called an axis mundi-the liminal site between divine and profane realms; according to the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA, the various hot and cold hells (see NARAKA) are located not below Mount SUMERU but below the bodhimanda. In medieval East Asia, the Chinese term for bodhimanda began to be used to designate a "ritual precinct," viz., a site where such critical Buddhist rituals as ordinations were held, and by the seventh century came to be commonly used as the equivalent of "monastery" (si). In Korea, toryang (= bodhimanda) is also used to designate the central courtyard around which are arrayed the most important shrine halls in a monastery.

Both numerically and operationally, the Army was the most important of the armed services. Field-Marshall Walter von Brauchitsch was its Commander-in-Chief between 1938 and December 1941. This position was then assumed by Hitler. As Hitler was also Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, this meant that there was considerable overlap in practice between the OKH and the OKW.

Brihad-aranyaka or -aranya Upanishad (Sanskrit) Bṛhad-āraṇyaka, -āraṇya Upaniṣad [from bṛhad great + āraṇyaka produced in a forest] A celebrated Upanishad, forming the last five prapathakas (sections) of the Satapatha-Brahmana — one of the most important of the Brahmanas — attributed to Yajnavalkya. The title refers to this class of highly mystical and metaphysical literary work supposed to have been thought out by sages while retired in the solitudes of mountain and forest. Aranyaka is closely associated with Upanishad, and often used interchangeably with it; thus this work is often called Brihad-Upanishad or Brihad-aranyaka-upanishad.

Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. A term coined by the Sanskritist FRANKLIN EDGERTON, who compiled the definitive grammar and dictionary of the language, to refer to the peculiar Buddhist argot of Sanskrit that is used both in many Indic MAHAYANA scriptures, as well as in the MAHAVASTU, a biography of the Buddha composed within the LOKOTTARAVADA subgroup of the MAHASAMGHIKA school. Edgerton portrays Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit texts as the products of a gradual Sanskritization of texts that had originally been composed in various Middle Indic dialects (PRAKRIT). Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) texts were not wholesale renderings of vernacular materials intended to better display Sanskrit vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, but rather were ongoing, and often incomplete, reworkings of Buddhist materials, which reflected the continued prestige of Sanskrit within the Indic scholarly community. This argot of Sanskrit is sometimes called the "GATHA dialect," because its peculiarities are especially noticeable in MahAyAna verse forms. Edgerton describes three layers of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit based on the extent of their hybridization (and only loosely chronological). The first, and certainly earliest, class consists solely of the MahAvastu, the earliest extant BHS text, in which both the prose and verse portions of the scripture contain many hybridized forms. In the second class, verses remain hybridized, but the prose sections are predominantly standard Sanskrit and are recognizable as BHS only in their vocabulary. This second class includes many of the most important MahAyAna scriptures, including the GAndAVYuHA, LALITAVISTARA, SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, and SUKHAVATĪVYuHASuTRA. In the third class, both the verse and prose sections are predominantly standard Sanskrit, and only in their vocabulary would they be recognized as BHS. Texts in this category include the AstASAHASRIKAPRAJNAPARAMITA, BODHISATTVABHuMI, LAnKAVATARASuTRA, MuLASARVASTIVADA VINAYA, and VAJRACCHEDIKAPRAJNAPARAMITASuTRA.

Bu ston rin chen grub. (Buton Rinchen Drup) (1290-1364). A Tibetan scholar, translator, and encyclopedist, renowned for systematizing the Tibetan Buddhist canon into its present form. According to Tibetan hagiographies, Bu ston was born into a lineage of tantric practitioners and considered a reincarnation of the Kashmiri master sAKYAsRĪBHADRA. Having mastered tantric ritual at an early age, he then received ordination at the age of eighteen. He trained under numerous teachers, studying all branches of Buddhist learning and eventually earned a reputation especially for his knowledge of the KALACAKRATANTRA. At age thirty, Bu ston accepted the abbacy of ZHWA LU monastery in central Tibet, where he authored and taught his most influential works; his entire corpus fills twenty-eight volumes in one edition. Bu ston's tenure at Zhwa lu was so influential that it provided the name for a new lineage, the so-called Zhwa lu pa (those of Zhwa lu) or the Bu lugs tshul (the tradition of Bu ston). In about 1332 Bu ston completed his famous history of Buddhism (BU STON CHOS 'BYUNG) and it was during this time that, based on previous canonical lists, he began to reformulate a classification system for organizing the Tibetan canon. Bu ston was not the only editor (among them were Dbu pa blo gsal and Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri), but he was the most important figure in the final redaction of the BKA' 'GYUR and BSTAN 'GYUR; he compared manuscripts from the two major manuscript collections at SNAR THANG and 'Tshal, added other works not found there, eliminated indigenous Tibetan works, decided on criteria for inclusion in the canon, standardized terminology, and decided on categories under which to include the many volumes. It is customary in modern works to include Bu ston in the SA SKYA sect and indeed his explanations of the ABHISAMAYALAMKARA and the ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, among others, are considered authoritative by that sect. But his influence is not limited to that sect; for example, TSONG KHA PA's commentary on the perfection of wisdom (LEGS BSHAD GSER 'PHRENG), and his explanation of the different types of tantra (SNGAGS RIM CHEN MO) (both authoritative texts in the DGE LUGS sect) borrow heavily from Bu ston's work. Bu ston is one of several key figures in the history of Tibetan Buddhism to be referred to as kun mkhyen, or "all knowing."

cache "memory management" /kash/ A small fast memory holding recently accessed data, designed to speed up subsequent access to the same data. Most often applied to processor-memory access but also used for a local copy of data accessible over a network etc. When data is read from, or written to, {main memory} a copy is also saved in the cache, along with the associated main memory address. The cache monitors addresses of subsequent reads to see if the required data is already in the cache. If it is (a {cache hit}) then it is returned immediately and the main memory read is aborted (or not started). If the data is not cached (a {cache miss}) then it is fetched from main memory and also saved in the cache. The cache is built from faster memory chips than main memory so a cache hit takes much less time to complete than a normal memory access. The cache may be located on the same {integrated circuit} as the {CPU}, in order to further reduce the access time. In this case it is often known as {primary cache} since there may be a larger, slower {secondary cache} outside the CPU chip. The most important characteristic of a cache is its {hit rate} - the fraction of all memory accesses which are satisfied from the cache. This in turn depends on the cache design but mostly on its size relative to the main memory. The size is limited by the cost of fast memory chips. The hit rate also depends on the access pattern of the particular program being run (the sequence of addresses being read and written). Caches rely on two properties of the access patterns of most programs: temporal locality - if something is accessed once, it is likely to be accessed again soon, and spatial locality - if one memory location is accessed then nearby memory locations are also likely to be accessed. In order to exploit spatial locality, caches often operate on several words at a time, a "{cache line}" or "cache block". Main memory reads and writes are whole {cache lines}. When the processor wants to write to main memory, the data is first written to the cache on the assumption that the processor will probably read it again soon. Various different policies are used. In a {write-through} cache, data is written to main memory at the same time as it is cached. In a {write-back} cache it is only written to main memory when it is forced out of the cache. If all accesses were writes then, with a write-through policy, every write to the cache would necessitate a main memory write, thus slowing the system down to main memory speed. However, statistically, most accesses are reads and most of these will be satisfied from the cache. Write-through is simpler than write-back because an entry that is to be replaced can just be overwritten in the cache as it will already have been copied to main memory whereas write-back requires the cache to initiate a main memory write of the flushed entry followed (for a processor read) by a main memory read. However, write-back is more efficient because an entry may be written many times in the cache without a main memory access. When the cache is full and it is desired to cache another line of data then a cache entry is selected to be written back to main memory or "flushed". The new line is then put in its place. Which entry is chosen to be flushed is determined by a "{replacement algorithm}". Some processors have separate instruction and data caches. Both can be active at the same time, allowing an instruction fetch to overlap with a data read or write. This separation also avoids the possibility of bad {cache conflict} between say the instructions in a loop and some data in an array which is accessed by that loop. See also {direct mapped cache}, {fully associative cache}, {sector mapping}, {set associative cache}. (1997-06-25)

cache ::: (memory management) /kash/ A small fast memory holding recently accessed data, designed to speed up subsequent access to the same data. Most often applied to processor-memory access but also used for a local copy of data accessible over a network etc.When data is read from, or written to, main memory a copy is also saved in the cache, along with the associated main memory address. The cache monitors memory read is aborted (or not started). If the data is not cached (a cache miss) then it is fetched from main memory and also saved in the cache.The cache is built from faster memory chips than main memory so a cache hit takes much less time to complete than a normal memory access. The cache may be the access time. In this case it is often known as primary cache since there may be a larger, slower secondary cache outside the CPU chip.The most important characteristic of a cache is its hit rate - the fraction of all memory accesses which are satisfied from the cache. This in turn depends on the cache design but mostly on its size relative to the main memory. The size is limited by the cost of fast memory chips.The hit rate also depends on the access pattern of the particular program being run (the sequence of addresses being read and written). Caches rely on two operate on several words at a time, a cache line or cache block. Main memory reads and writes are whole cache lines.When the processor wants to write to main memory, the data is first written to the cache on the assumption that the processor will probably read it again soon. to main memory at the same time as it is cached. In a write-back cache it is only written to main memory when it is forced out of the cache.If all accesses were writes then, with a write-through policy, every write to the cache would necessitate a main memory write, thus slowing the system down to because an entry may be written many times in the cache without a main memory access.When the cache is full and it is desired to cache another line of data then a cache entry is selected to be written back to main memory or flushed. The new line is then put in its place. Which entry is chosen to be flushed is determined by a replacement algorithm.Some processors have separate instruction and data caches. Both can be active at the same time, allowing an instruction fetch to overlap with a data read or say the instructions in a loop and some data in an array which is accessed by that loop.See also direct mapped cache, fully associative cache, sector mapping, set associative cache. (1997-06-25)

Capricorn (The Goat): The tenth sign of the Zodiac. In Hindu astrology, Makarar—and considered by the ancients to be the most important of all the signs. Its symbol () represents the figure by which the sign is often pictured—that of the forepart of a goat, with the tail of a fish—vaguely suggesting the mermaid. Sometimes also by the sea-goat, or dolphin. It is said to have a reference to the legend of the goat and the Sun gods. The Sun is in Capricorn annually from December 22 to January 20. Astrologically it is the first thirty degrees following the Winter Solstice, marked by the passing of the Sun over the Tropic of Capricorn and occupying a position along the Ecliptic from 270° to 300°. It is the “leading” quality of the element Earth: negative, nocturnal, cold, dry, obeying. Ruler: Saturn. Exaltation: Mars. Detriment: Moon. Fall: Jupiter. Symbolic interpretation: A goat with a fish’s tail, signifying extremes of height and depth; changes wrought by time; union of the Christian and Jewish religious dispensations.

caryAtantra. (T. spyod rgyud). In Sanskrit, "performance tantra"; in a traditional fourfold division of tantric practices and texts, it is the second of the four, ranked above KRIYATANTRA and below YOGATANTRA and ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA. According to the Indian commentator BUDDHAGUHYA, this class of tantras derives its name from the fact that it set forth an equal "performance" of both external rituals and internal yoga. This also explains the placement of this class of tantras between krīya and yoga. The most important tantra in the performance class is the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHI. There are three buddha families (BUDDHAKULA) in caryAtantra: TATHAGATAKULA, PADMAKULA, and VAJRAKULA. According to Tibetan exegetes, caryAtantra for the most part does not set forth practices for meditating upon oneself as a buddha but rather prescribes methods for gaining feats (SIDDHI).

cataclysmist ::: n. --> One who believes that the most important geological phenomena have been produced by cataclysms.

Cheng weishi lun. (S. *VijNaptimAtratAsiddhi; J. Joyui-shikiron; K. Song yusik non 成唯識論). In Chinese, "Demonstration of Consciousness-Only"; a magnum opus of Sino-Indian YOGACARA Buddhism and the foundational text of the Chinese WEISHI, or FAXIANG, school. The text is often cited by its reconstructed Sanskrit title *VIJNAPTIMATRATASIDDHI, and its authorship attributed to DHARMAPALA (530-561), but the text as we have it in Chinese translation has no precise analogue in Sanskrit and was never used within the Indian or Tibetan traditions. Its Chinese translator XUANZANG (600/602-664), one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese Buddhist scholasticism, traveled to India in the seventh century, where he specialized in YogAcAra doctrine at NALANDA monastic university under one of DharmapAla's disciples, sĪLABHADRA (529-645). At NAlandA, Xuanzang studied VASUBANDHU's TRIMsIKA (TriMsikAvijNaptimAtratA[siddhi]kArikA), the famous "Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only," along with ten prose commentaries on the verses by the prominent YogAcAra scholiasts DharmapAla, STHIRAMATI, Nanda, CitrabhAnu, Gunamati, Jinamitra, JNAnamitra, JNAnacandra, Bandhusrī, suddhacandra, and Jinaputra. After his return to China in 645, Xuanzang set to work translating this massive amount of new material into Chinese. Rather than translate in their entirety all ten commentaries, however, on the advice of his translation team Xuanzang chose to focus on DharmapAla's exegesis, which he considered orthodox, rather than muddy the waters in China with the divergent interpretations of the other teachers. As a foil for DharmapAla's interpretation, Xuanzang uses the commentaries by Sthiramati, Nanda, and occasionally CitrabhAnu, but he typically concludes any discussion with DharmapAla's definitive view. This decision to rely heavily on DharmapAla's interpretation probably comes from the fact that Xuanzang's own Indian teacher, sīlabhadra, was himself a pupil of DharmapAla. ¶ The Cheng weishi lun is principally concerned with the origination and removal of ignorance (AVIDYA), by clarifying the processes by which erroneous perception arises and enlightened understanding is produced. Unlike the writings of STHIRAMATI, which understood the bifurcation of consciousness into subject and object to be wholly imaginary, the Cheng weishi lun proposed instead that consciousness in fact always appears in both subjective and objective aspects, viz., a "seeing part" (darsanabhAga) and a "seen part" (nimittabhAga). The apparent dichotomy between inner self and external images is a supposition of mentality (MANAS), which in turn leads to the various afflictions (KLEsA), as the mind clings to those images it likes and rejects those it dislikes; thus, suffering (DUḤKHA) is created and the cycle of rebirth (SAMSARA) sustained. Both the perceiving self and the perceived images are therefore both simply projections of the mind and thus mere-representation (VIJNAPTIMATRA) or, as Xuanzang translated the term, consciousness-only (WEISHI). This clarification of the perceptual process produces an enlightened understanding that catalyzes a transmutation of the basis (AsRAYAPARAVṚTTI), so that the root consciousness (MuLAVIJNANA), or ALAYAVIJNANA, no longer serves as the storehouse of either wholesome or unwholesome seeds (BĪJA), thus bringing an end to the subject-object bifurcation. In the course of its discussion, the Cheng weishi lun offers an extensive treatment of the YogAcAra theory of the eight consciousnesses (VIJNANA) and especially the storehouse consciousness (AlayavijNAna) that stores the seeds, or potentialities, of these representational images. The text also offers an overview of the three-nature (TRISVABHAVA) theory of vijNaptimAtra as imaginary (PARIKALPITA), dependent (PARATANTRA), and perfected (PARINIsPANNA). Finally, the Cheng weishi lun provides such exhaustive detail on the hundred dharmas (BAIFA) taxonomical system of the YogAcAra that it has been used within the tradition as a primer of YogAcAra dharma theory.

chlorine ::: n. --> One of the elementary substances, commonly isolated as a greenish yellow gas, two and one half times as heavy as air, of an intensely disagreeable suffocating odor, and exceedingly poisonous. It is abundant in nature, the most important compound being common salt. It is powerful oxidizing, bleaching, and disinfecting agent. Symbol Cl. Atomic weight, 35.4.

Congrong lu. (J. Shoyoroku; K. Chongyong nok 從容録). In Chinese, "Encouragement (Hermitage) Record"; edited by Chan master Wansong Xingxiu (1165-1246). Also known as the Congrong an lu and Wansong laoren pingzhang Tiantong Jue heshang songgu Congrong an lu ("Encouragement Hermitage Record of the Prose Commentaries by Old Man Wansong on the Case and Verse [Collection] by Master Jue of Tiantong"). In 1223, while residing at the hermitage Congrong'an at the monastery of Bao'ensi near Yanjing, Wansong was asked by the famous layman and statesman Yelü Chucai (1190-1244) to expound upon an earlier collection of one hundred cases (GONG'AN) and their verse commentaries (SONGGU) prepared by the Chan master HONGZHI ZHENGJUE. In the Congrong lu, Wansong added some introductory words (shizhong; see CHUISHI), prose commentaries (pingchang), and capping phrases (ZHUYU) to Hongzhi's collection. The Congrong lu is considered one the most important scriptures of the CAODONG ZONG lineage of Chan and demonstrates definitively that the Caodong school (J. SoToSHu) employed gong'ans (J. koan) as part of its training.

CONSCIOUSNESS One of the three aspects of existence. Consciousness in the primordial atoms is from the beginning potential (unconscious), is gradually awakened in the process of manifestation to actualized passive consciousness subsequently to become ever more active in the ever higher worlds of ever higher natural kingdoms.

The most important insight about the nature of consciousness is that all consciousness is simultaneously collective consciousness. (K 1.16.3)

There is only one consciousness is the cosmos, the cosmic total consciousness, of which every monad has an inalienable part. This consciousness is an amalgamation of the consciousness of all monads in the cosmos. K 2.4.1


Cracow or Krakow ::: City in southern Poland, one of the most important for Jews from the 14th century. In 1495, Kazimierz was created, later becoming a part of Cracow. In 1939, 60,000 Jews lived in Cracow in 1939, but only about 4,000 survived the Holocaust.

dai-gohonzon. (大御本尊). In Japanese, lit. "great object of devotion"; the most important object of worship in the NICHIREN SHoSHu school of Japanese Buddhism. The dai-gohonzon is a plank of camphor wood that has at its center an inscription of homage to the title of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra")-NAMU MYoHo RENGEKYo, as well as the name of NICHIREN (1222-1282), surrounded by a cosmological chart (MAndALA) of the Buddhist universe, written in Nichiren's own hand in 1279. By placing namu Myohorengekyo and his name on the same line, the school understands that Nichiren meant that the teachings of the Saddharmapundarīkasutra and the person who proclaimed those teachings (Nichiren) are one and the same (ninpo ikka). The dai-gohonzon has been enshrined at TAISEKIJI, the administrative head temple of Nichiren Shoshu, since the temple's foundation in 1290; for this reason, the temple remains the major pilgrimage center for the school's adherents. The dai-gohonzon itself, the sanctuary (kaidan) where it is enshrined at Kaisekiji, and the teaching of namu Myohorengekyo, are together called the "three great esoteric laws" (SANDAI HIHo), because they were hidden between the lines of the Saddharmapundarīkasutra until Nichiren discovered them and revealed them to the world. Transcriptions of the mandala, called simply GOHONZON, are inscribed on wooden tablets in temples or on paper scrolls when they are enshrined in home altars. See also DAIMOKU.

Dasheng qixin lun. (S. *Mahāyānasraddhotpādasāstra; J. Daijo kishinron; K. Taesŭng kisin non 大乗起信論). In Chinese, "Treatise on the Awakening of Faith According to the MAHĀYĀNA"; attributed to the Indian author AsVAGHOsA, but now widely assumed to be an indigenous Chinese text (see APOCRYPHA) composed in the sixth century; typically known in English as simply the "Awakening of Faith." Since its composition, the text has remained one of the most influential treatises in all of East Asian Buddhism. The earliest and most widely used "translation" (c. 550) is attributed to the famous YOGĀCĀRA scholar PARAMĀRTHA, although some scholars have speculated that Paramārtha may in fact have composed the treatise after his arrival in China, perhaps even in Sanskrit, and then translated it into Chinese. The author of the Dasheng qixin lun sought to reconcile two of the dominant, if seemingly incompatible, strands in Mahāyāna Buddhism: TATHĀGATAGARBHA (embryo or womb of the buddhas) thought and the ĀLAYAVIJNĀNA (storehouse consciousness) theory of consciousness. Tathāgatagarbha thought taught that all sentient beings have the potential to achieve enlightenment because that enlightenment is in fact inherent in the minds of sentient beings. What that doctrine did not seem to explain well to the East Asians, however, was why sentient beings who were inherently enlightened would have become deluded in the first place. ĀlayavijNāna theory, by contrast, posited that the foundational recesses of the mind serve as a storehouse of the essentially infinite numbers of potentialities or seeds (BĪJA) of all past actions, including unsalutary deeds; this interpretation suggested to the East Asians that mental purity was not innate and that enlightenment therefore had to be catalyzed by some external source, such as "hearing the dharma," which would then prompt a "transformation of the basis" (ĀsRAYAPARĀVṚTTI) that could lead to purity of mind. The ālayavijNāna thus explained the intractability of ignorance and delusion, but did not seem to offer ready accessibility to enlightenment. In its search for common ground between these two doctrines, the Dasheng qixin lun instead describes the mind as being comprised of two distinct, but complementary, aspects: true thusness (ZHENRU; S. TATHATĀ) and production-and-cessation (shengmie), which correspond respectively to ultimate truth (PARAMĀRTHASATYA) and conventional truth (SAMVṚTISATYA) or the unconditioned (ASAMSKṚTA) and conditioned (SAMSKṚTA) realms. Since the mind that is subject to production and cessation (which the treatise identifies with ālayavijNāna) remains always grounded on the mind of true thusness (which the treatise identifies with tathāgatagarbha), the mind is therefore simultaneously deluded and enlightened. This distinction between this enlightened essence of the mind as "true thusness" and its various temporal manifestations as "production and cessation" is also described in terms of "essence" (TI) and "function" (YONG). From the standpoint of the buddhas and sages, the mind of the sentient being is therefore seen as being perpetually in a state of "original enlightenment" or "intrinsic enlightenment" (BENJUE; see also HONGAKU), while from the standpoint of sentient beings that same mind is seen as being deluded and thus in need of purification through a process of "actualizing enlightenment" (SHIJUE). Actualizing enlightenment involves the cultivation of calmness (ji; S. sAMATHA) and insight (guan; S. VIPAsYANĀ), as well as the development of no-thought (WUNIAN), aspects of training that receive extensive discussion in the treatise. Once the process of actualizing enlightenment is completed, however, the student realizes that the enlightenment achieved through cultivation is in fact identical to the enlightenment that is innate. Hence, the difference between these two types of enlightenment is ultimately a matter of perspective: the buddhas and sages see the innate purity of the tathāgatagarbha as something intrinsic; ordinary persons (PṚTHAGJANA) see it as something that must be actualized through practice. Some East Asian Buddhists, such as WoNHYO (617-686), seem to have presumed that the KŬMGANG SAMMAE KYoNG (S. *Vajrasamādhisutra) was the scriptural source of the Dasheng qixin lun's emblematic teaching of the one mind and its two aspects, even though we now know that that scripture was a Korean apocryphon that was not composed until over a century later. The most important commentaries to the Dasheng qixin lun are Wonhyo's TAESŬNG KISIN NON SO and TAESŬNG KISIN NON PYoLGI, FAZANG's DASHENG QIXIN LUN YI JIs, and JINGYING HUIYUAN's Dasheng qixin lun yishu.

debugger "tool, programming" A {tool} used by a {programmer} to monitor and control a program he is trying to fix. The most important functions of a debugger are {tracing}, stepping, {breakpoints} and {watches}. Tracing displays a step-by-step report on what {statement} the program is currently executing, allowing the programmer to follow the {flow of control} through {if statements}, {loops (loop)}, {subroutine} calls, etc. {Breakpoints} and {watches} both pause execution of the program and return control to the debugger under certain conditions. A {breakpoint} triggers when execution reaches a particular {statement} in the program and a {watch} triggers whenever a specific variable is modified. Stepping is like a breakpoint on every statement, often with the option to step "into" or "over" a {subroutine}, i.e. continue stepping through the statements of the subroutine or just execute it without pausing and resume stepping when it returns. Whenever control returns to the debugger it lets the programmer ask to see the values of {variables}, and possibly modify them, before resuming execution. Some debuggers can be set to automatically perform some action like display a variable value and resume. A debugger can interact with the target program in different ways. Some debuggers require the program to be loaded into the debugger which may then modify or "instrument" the program for debugging. Others can "attach" to a program that is already running. Some are built into the normal program execution environment (e.g. an {interpreter}) and can be set to run under certain conditions, e.g. errors. Early debuggers such as {Unix}'s {adb} only knew about the compiled executable code so sometimes debugging had to be done at the level of {machine code} instructions and numerical memory locations. If you were lucky, the debugger could access the program's {symbol table} and display the original names of subroutines and variables. Sometimes this required the program to be "compiled for debugging". Since compiling every program for debugging would add significantly to the size of a {distribution} of a whole {operating system}, it is common for programs to be distributed without debugging support but for individual programs to be made available with it. A major advance in debuggers was source-level debugging. This gives the programmer a view of their {source code} annotated with breakpoints and a pointer to the statement currently being executed. Such a view is commonly part of an {integrated development environment} like {Visual Basic}. (2014-08-23)

Dge 'dun chos 'phel. (Gendun Chopel) (1903-1951). A distinguished essayist, poet, painter, translator, historian, and philosopher; one of the most important Tibetan intellectuals of the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in the Reb kong region of A mdo, the son of a respected SNGAGS PA. At the age of five, he was recognized as the incarnation (SPRUL SKU) of an abbot of the famous RNYING MA monastery, RDO RJE BRAG. Following his father's untimely death, he entered a local DGE LUGS monastery, eventually moving to BLA BRANG BKRA' SHIS 'KHYIL. He gained particular notoriety as a debater but apparently criticized the monastery's textbooks (yig cha). In 1927, he traveled to LHA SA, where he entered Sgo mang College of 'BRAS SPUNGS monastery. In 1934, the Indian scholar and nationalist Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963) arrived in Lha sa in search of Sanskrit manuscripts, especially those dealing with Buddhist logic. He enlisted Dge 'dun chos 'phel as his guide, just as he was completing the final examinations at the end of the long curriculum of the DGE BSHES. After visiting many of the monasteries of southern Tibet, Sankrityayan invited Dge 'dun chos 'phel to return with him to India. Over the next decade, he would travel extensively, and often alone, across India and Sri Lanka, learning Sanskrit, Pāli, several Indian vernaculars, and English. He assisted the Russian Tibetologist, GEORGE ROERICH, in the translation of the important fifteenth-century history of Tibetan Buddhism by 'Gos lo tsā ba, DEB THER SNGON PO ("The Blue Annals"). He visited and made studies of many of the important Buddhist archaeological sites in India, writing a guide (lam yig) that is still used by Tibetan pilgrims. He studied Sanskrit erotica and frequented Calcutta brothels, producing his famous sex manual, the 'Dod pa'i bstan bcos ("Treatise on Passion"). During his time abroad, he also spent more than a year in Sri Lanka. In January 1946, after twelve years abroad, Dge 'dun chos 'phel returned to Lha sa. He taught poetry and also gave teachings on MADHYAMAKA philosophy, which would be published posthumously as the controversial Klu sgrub dgongs rgyan ("Adornment for NĀGĀRJUNA's Thought"). Within a few months of his arrival in Lha sa, Dge 'dun chos 'phel was arrested by the government of the regent of the young fourteenth Dalai Lama on the fabricated charge of counterfeiting foreign currency. Sentenced to three years, he served at least two, working on his unfinished history of early Tibet, Deb ther dkar po ("The White Annals"), and composing poetry. He emerged from prison a broken man and died in October 1951 at the age of forty-eight.

Dharmākara. (T. Chos kyi 'byung gnas; C. Fazang biqiu; J. Hozo biku; K. Popchang pigu 法藏比丘). The bodhisattva-monk (BHIKsU) who became the buddha AMITĀBHA. According to the longer SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA (C. Wuliangshoujing), in the distant past, Dharmākara was a monk under the tutelage of the buddha LOKEsVARARĀJA. At Dharmākara's request, Lokesvararāja described and displayed millions of buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA) to the monk. Dharmākara then selected the best qualities of each and concentrated them in his conception of a single buddha-field, which he described to Lokesvararāja in terms of forty-eight vows. The most important of these vows for the PURE LAND tradition is the eighteenth, in which he vows that all beings who call upon him (with the possible exception of those who have committed the five ĀNANTARYAKARMAN, the heinous crimes that bring immediate retribution, or who have slandered the DHARMA) will be reborn in his pure land of SUKHĀVATĪ. Since Dharmākara was eventually successful in his quest and became the buddha Amitābha, his vows have been fulfilled and all sentient beings therefore have access to his buddha land.

Dharmakīrti. (T. Chos kyi grags pa; C. Facheng; J. Hosho; K. Popch'ing 法稱) (c. 600-670 CE). Indian Buddhist logician, who was one of the most important and influential figures in the history of Buddhist philosophy. Dharmakīrti was the author of a series of seminal works building on his predecessor DIGNĀGA's PRAMĀnASAMUCCAYA ("Compendium on Valid Knowledge"), defending it against criticism by Brahmanical writers and explaining how accurate knowledge could be gleaned (see PRAMĀnA). His "seven treatises on pramāna" (T. TSHAD MA SDE 'DUN) are the PRAMĀnAVĀRTTIKA ("Commentary on Valid Knowledge") and PRAMĀnAVINIsCAYA ("Determination of Valid Knowledge"), as well as the NYĀYABINDU ("Drop of Reasoning"), the Hetubindu ("Drop of Reasons"), the Sambandhaparīksā ("Analysis of Relations"), the SaMtānāntarasiddhi ("Proof of Other Mental Continuums"), and the Vādanyāya ("Reasoning for Debate"). Dharmakīrti proposed a causal efficacy connecting the sense object and sensory perception as the basis of reliable perception (PRATYAKsA), thereby attempting to remove the potential fallacy in Dignāga's acceptance of the infallibility of sense data themselves. Dharmakīrti wrote explanations of many of his own works, and DHARMOTTARA, sākyamati, PRAJNĀKARAGUPTA, and Manorathanandin, among others, wrote detailed commentaries on his works. He had a profound influence on the exchange between subsequent Indian Buddhist writers, such as sĀNTARAKsITA, KAMALAsĪLA, and HARIBHADRA, and contemporary Brahmanical Naiyāyika and MīmāMsaka thinkers. His work subsequently became the focus of intense study in Tibet, first in GSANG PHU NE'U THOG monastery where RNGOG BLO LDAN SHES RAB and later PHYWA PA CHOS KYI SENG GE established through their commentaries on the PRAMĀnAVINIsCAYA an influential tradition of interpretation; it was questioned by SA SKYA PAndITA in his TSHAD MA RIGS GTER, giving rise to a second line of interpretation more in line with Dharmakīrti's original works. There is a question of Dharmakīrti's philosophical affiliation, with elements in his works that reflect both SAUTRĀNTIKA and YOGĀCĀRA doctrinal positions.

Dharmapāla. (T. Chos skyong; C. Hufa; J. Goho; K. Hobop 護法) (530-561). One of the ten great YOGĀCĀRA philosophers of Indian Buddhism. He was born in southern India in the middle of the sixth century CE, to the family of a high government minister. At around the age of twenty, on the evening that he was to be married, he ran away to a mountain monastery to become a monk. After mastering the teachings of both mainstream and MAHĀYĀNA Buddhism, Dharmapāla traveled extensively, becoming renowned for his debating skills. Later, he studied under the YOGĀCĀRA specialist and logician DIGNĀGA (d.u.) at NĀLANDĀ, where he became chief instructor despite his youth. His teaching focused especially on Yogācāra doctrine, and he produced many excellent disciples. XUANZANG (600/602-664), one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese Buddhist scholasticism, traveled to India in the seventh century, where he studied Dharmapāla's doctrines at Nālandā under one of his principal disciples, sĪLABHADRA (529-645), and brought Dharmapāla's scholastic lineage back to China. Xuanzang edited and translated some of the materials he had collected in India into the CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimātratāsiddhisāstra; "Demonstration of Consciousness-Only"), a synopsis of ten separate commentaries on VASUBANDHU's TRIMsIKĀ ("Thirty Verses") but heavily focused on the insights of Dharmapāla, which Xuanzang considered orthodox. Unlike STHIRAMATI, who understood the bifurcation of consciousness into subject and object to be wholly imaginary, Dharmapāla proposed instead that consciousness always appears in both subjective and objective aspects, viz., a "seeing part" (darsanabhāga) and a seen part (nimittabhāga). His interpretations regarding the nature of consciousness became predominant in the Chinese FAXIANG (alt. Weishi) school of Yogācāra, which was developed by Xuanzang and his two main disciples, WoNCH'ŬK and KUIJI. Dharmapāla retired to AsaMbodhi monastery at the age of twenty-nine and passed away at the age of thirty-one.

Dharmaraksa. (C. Zhu Fahu; J. Jiku Hogo; K. Ch'uk Popho 竺法護) (c. 233-310). One of the most prolific translators in early Chinese Buddhism, who played an important role in transmitting the Indian scriptural tradition to China. Presumed to be of Yuezhi heritage, Dharmaraksa was born in the Chinese outpost of DUNHUANG and grew up speaking multiple languages. He became a monk at the age of eight and in his thirties traveled extensively throughout the oasis kingdoms of Central Asia, collecting manuscripts of MAHĀYĀNA scriptures in a multitude of Indic and Middle Indic languages, which he eventually brought back with him to China. Because of his multilingual ability, Dharmaraksa was able to supervise a large team in rendering these texts into Chinese; the team included scholars of Indian and Central Asian origin, as well as such Chinese laymen as the father-and-son team Nie Chengyuan and Nie Daozhen. Some 150 translations in over three hundred rolls are attributed to Dharmaraksa, including the first translation of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, the LALITAVISTARA, the BHADRAKALPIKASuTRA, and some of the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ literature. Although many of Dharmaraksa's pioneering renderings were later superseded by the fourth-century retranslations of KUMĀRAJĪVA, Dharmaraksa is generally considered the most important translator of the early Chinese Buddhist saMgha.

Dharmottara. (T. Chos mchog) (fl. eighth century). Indian author of a number of works on PRAMĀnA, the most important of which are his detailed commentary on DHARMAKĪRTI's PRAMĀnAVINIsCAYA and a shorter commentary on his NYĀYABINDU. A contemporary or student of PRAJNĀKARAGUPTA, Dharmottara was influential in the transmission of PRAMĀnA (T. tshad ma) studies in Tibet. RNGOG BLO LDAN SHES RAB's translation of Dharmakīrti's Pramānaviniscaya and Nyāyabindu into Tibetan together with Dharmottara's commentaries and his own explanations laid the foundations for the study of pramāna in GSANG PHU NE'U THOG monastery. This importance continued unchallenged until SA SKYA PAndITA's detailed explanation of Dharmakīrti's ideas based on all his seven major works, particularly his PRAMĀnAVĀRTTIKA, opened up a competing tradition of explanation.

Dimension or dimensional is a word which when strictly used refers to measuring in one or another direction. Now the intuition which has led many modern scientists and philosophers to speak of more than three dimensions of space is a true one, but a more correct way of phrasing these suppositions dimensions would be to speak of the philosophical qualities or attributes of space. Thus, time in the Relativity Theory of Einstein may logically enough be considered a dimension, because it is a quality or mode of measuring space from event to event, so that by such mensuration the mind can picture to itself not only the continuous present, but likewise the past and future. Furthermore, any entity possessing the commonly accepted three dimensions could not exist or be, unless the time element entered into the equation; in other words, unless a being or thing exists in time it obviously cannot exist at all, and thus it is that time logically and correctly can be called a dimension of space. As long as matter or physical space exists, however, there will be for such physical space three dimensions and no more, to which it is likewise philosophically accurate enough to add the fourth dimension modernly called time; but theosophy is not satisfied with restricting itself to these four ways of measuring the attributes or qualities of space, but adds others, one of the most important being consciousness, which is such an attribute of abstract space as time is, or as our length, breadth, and thickness.

Dpal sprul Rin po che. (Patrul Rinpoche) (1808-1887). One of the most important teachers of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism during the nineteenth century, famous for his great humility and simple lifestyle. Recognized as an incarnate lama (SPRUL SKU) while a child, Dpal sprul Rin po che trained under the great ascetic 'Jigs med rgyal ba'i myu gu (Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu), himself a disciple of the renowned treasure revealer (GTER STON) 'JIGS MED GLING PA, from whom he received instructions on the KLONG CHEN SNYING THIG, "Heart Essence of the Great Expanse." He later studied with many other great masters, including MDO MKHYEN RTSE YE SHES RDO RJE, mind emanation (thugs sprul) of 'Jigs med gling pa. Although he established himself as one of the foremost scholars of his time, Dpal sprul Rin po che emulated the renunciate lifestyle of his masters, wandering from place to place with few possessions, often in the guise of an ordinary beggar. He was known for his exceptional kindness, treating both king and pauper with equal compassion. The author of numerous commentaries and treatises on Buddhist philosophy and doctrine, he is perhaps best known for his KUN BZANG BLA MA'I ZHAL LUNG ("Words of My Perfect Teacher"), an explanation of the preliminary practices of the klong chen snying thig. Together with other great lamas of eastern Tibet, Dpal sprul Rin po che was also an active participant in the so-called RIS MED (nonsectarian) movement, which sought to cut through the rampant sectarian controversies of the time. According to one account, when asked what religious affiliation he maintained, Dpal sprul Rinpoche famously remarked that he was only a follower of the Buddha. He is also known as Rdza Dpal sprul (Dza Patrul) and O rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po.

Dung dkar. (Dungkar). A valley in western Tibet (Mnga' ris) about thirty kilometers from THO LING with 1,150 caves, most of which were used as dwellings but twenty of which are cave temples with mural paintings. The area appears to have become the capital of the Pu rang GU GE kingdom at the beginning of the twelfth century, and the cave temples with mural paintings and mud sculptures were probably founded by the descendents of the Gu ge royal family during that period. Of the three main caves, the most important has statues of the seven buddhas of the past (SAPTATATHĀGATA) and the future buddha MAITREYA, a ceiling mural of the VAJRADHĀTU MAndALA, and walls covered with bodhisattvas. Another has a GUHYASAMĀJA MAndALA, suggesting development at a later period. The caves have been documented a number of times, first by GIUSEPPE TUCCI in the 1930s.

Eiheiji. (永平寺). In Japanese, "Eternal Peace Monastery." Eiheiji is currently the headquarters (honzan) of the SoToSHu. Eiheiji was founded by the Zen master DoGEN KIGEN. A lay follower named Hatano Yoshishige offered his property in Echizen as a site for the new monastery and invited Dogen to lead the community. In 1243, Dogen moved to Echizen and resided in a dilapidated temple named Kippoji. In the meantime, Hatano and others began constructing a new DHARMA hall and SAMGHA hall (see C. SENGTANG), which they quickly finished by 1244. The new monastery was named Daibutsuji and renamed Eiheiji by Dogen in 1246. The name Eihei is said to derive from the Han-dynasty reign period, Yongping (58-75 CE; J. Eihei), when Buddhism first arrived in China. In 1248, the mountain on which Eiheiji is located was renamed Mt. Kichijo. In 1372, Eiheiji was declared a shusse dojo, an official monastery whose abbot is appointed by the state. In 1473, Eiheiji was devastated by war and fire, and reconstruction efforts began in 1487. Since its foundation, Eiheiji has continued to serve as one of the most important Zen institutions in Japan.

ESOTERIC HISTORY AFTER 1875 The instrument the planetary hierarchy had chosen for the task of publicizing the knowledge which had been kept secret since Atlantis was H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891). Blavatsky was enjoined not to give out any esoteric facts without special permission in each individual case. She was not to mention anything about the planetary hierarchy.

The truth, or the knowledge of reality, is only to be given gradually, with sparing facts, to a mankind unprepared to receive it. It is necessary to find connections to established fictions of which people have heard enough for them to believe that they comprehend what it all is about. A new, revolutionary system of ideas would be rejected off hand as a mere fantastic invention. It could not be comprehended, let alone understood, without careful preparation.

The most important reason, which probably only esotericians are able to understand, is the fact of the dynamic energy of ideas.

Once the esoteric knowledge was permitted to be published there was no longer any need of initiation into the old knowledge orders, nobody having been initiated into anyone of them since 1875. Although those initiated in previous incarnations were not given the opportunity to revive all their old knowledge, enough was made known, and besides hinted at, for them to be able to discover the most essential by themselves.

The most important esoteric facts to be found in the works of Sinnett, Judge, and
Hartmann &


ethnocentrism ::: The tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. It is defined as the viewpoint that "one's own group is the center of everything (better than all other cultures)," against which all other groups are judged. Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups.

Every sadbaka Is faced with two elements in him, the inner being which wants the Divine and the sadhana and the outer mainly vital and physical being which does not want them but remains attached to the things of the ordinary life. The mind is sometimes led by one, someUoves by the other. One of the most important things he has to do, therefore, is to decide fundamentally the quarrel between these two parts and to persuade or compel by psychic aspiration, by steadiness of the mind’s thought and will, by the choice of the higher vital in his emotional being, the opposing elements to be first quiescent and then consenting. So long as he is not able to do that his progress must be either very slow or fluctuating and chequered as the aspiration within cannot have a continuous action or a continuous result. Besides so long as thb is so, there are likely to be periodical revolts of the vita! repining at the slow progress, des- pairing, desponding, declaring the Adhar unfit ; calls from old life will come ; circumstances will be attracted which seem to justify it, suggestions will come from men and unseen powers pressing the sadhaka away from the sadhana and pointing back- ward to the former life. And yet in that life he is not likely to get any real satisfaction.

Extensible HyperText Markup Language "hypertext, standard, web" (XHTML) A reformulation of {HTML} 4.01 in {XML}. Being XML means that XHTML can be viewed, edited, and validated with standard XML tools. At the same time, it operates as well as or better than HTML 4 in existing HTML 4 conforming user agents. The most important change is that all elements must be terminated, either with a closing tag or using the "tag.../" shorthand. So, instead of "input type=submit" you would write "input type="submit" /" The space before the "/" is required by some older browsers. Other differences are that tag and attribute names should be lower case and all attributes should be quoted. {XHTML Home (http://w3.org/TR/xhtml1/)}. {Quick Summary (http://technorealm.co.uk/design/html-to-xhtml-conversions.html)} (2006-01-19)

Extensible HyperText Markup Language ::: (hypertext, standard, World-Wide Web) (XHTML) A reformulation of HTML 4.01 in XML. Being XML means that XHTML can be viewed, edited, and validated with standard XML tools. At the same time, it operates as well as or better than HTML 4 in existing HTML 4 conforming user agents.The most important change is that all elements must be terminated, either with a closing tag or using the tag.../> shorthand. So, instead of input type=submit> you would write input type=submit /> differences are that tag and attribute names should be lower case and all attributes should be quoted. . Latest version: 1.0 Second Edition 2002-08-01, as of 2004-03-16.(2006-01-19)

Fast Fourier Transform "algorithm" (FFT) An {algorithm} for computing the {Fourier transform} of a set of discrete data values. Given a finite set of data points, for example a periodic sampling taken from a real-world signal, the FFT expresses the data in terms of its component frequencies. It also solves the essentially identical inverse problem of reconstructing a signal from the frequency data. The FFT is a mainstay of {numerical analysis}. Gilbert Strang described it as "the most important algorithm of our generation". The FFT also provides the asymptotically fastest known algorithm for multiplying two {polynomials}. Versions of the algorithm (in {C} and {Fortran}) can be found on-line from the {GAMS} server {here (http://gams.nist.gov/cgi-bin/gams-serve/class/J1.html)}. ["Numerical Methods and Analysis", Buchanan and Turner]. (1994-11-09)

Fast Fourier Transform ::: (algorithm) (FFT) An algorithm for computing the Fourier transform of a set of discrete data values. Given a finite set of data points, for example a terms of its component frequencies. It also solves the essentially identical inverse problem of reconstructing a signal from the frequency data.The FFT is a mainstay of numerical analysis. Gilbert Strang described it as the most important algorithm of our generation. The FFT also provides the asymptotically fastest known algorithm for multiplying two polynomials.Versions of the algorithm (in C and Fortran) can be found on-line from the GAMS server .[Numerical Methods and Analysis, Buchanan and Turner]. (1994-11-09)

Feilaifeng. (J. Hiraiho; K. Piraebong 飛来峰). In Chinese, "Flying-In Peak," site of Buddhist rock carvings and grottoes, located in front of LINGYINSI in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Feilaifeng houses the most important sculptural works of Tibetan Buddhism found in Han Chinese territory. The name of the peak was inspired by a legend, according to which Vulture Peak (GṚDHRAKutAPARVATA) flew to this location from India. There are more than three hundred carved images still in existence at the site, with eleven from the Five Dynasties period, more than two hundred from the Song dynasty, and around one hundred from the Yuan. The Song-dynasty images were mostly carved during the Xianping era (998-1003) under Emperor Zhenzong. Many of these figures are ARHATs (C. LUOHAN), but some works illustrate special themes, such as XUANZANG's pilgrimage to India or MAITREYA's "Hemp Sack" (BUDAI) form. The gilded, colorfully painted Yuan images are delicately carved and constitute a significant development in the history of Chinese sculpture. Nearly half of these images depict esoteric themes, with buddhas, bodhisattvas, female deities, and dharma protectors (DHARMAPĀLA). The image enshrined in Niche 25 is VAJRADHARA. Also found here are images of MANJUsRĪ, AVALOKITEsVARA, and VAJRASATTVA. The female deity SITĀTAPATLĀ is depicted in Niche 22; she was highly venerated by the Yuan rulers because she was believed to be able to destroy armies and overcome disasters.

foo "jargon" /foo/ A sample name for absolutely anything, especially programs and files (especially {scratch files}). First on the standard list of {metasyntactic variables} used in {syntax} examples. See also {bar}, {baz}, {qux}, quux, {corge}, {grault}, {garply}, {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh}, {xyzzy}, {thud}. The etymology of "foo" is obscure. When used in connection with "bar" it is generally traced to the WWII-era Army slang acronym {FUBAR}, later bowdlerised to {foobar}. However, the use of the word "foo" itself has more complicated antecedents, including a long history in comic strips and cartoons. "FOO" often appeared in the "Smokey Stover" comic strip by Bill Holman. This surrealist strip about a fireman appeared in various American comics including "Everybody's" between about 1930 and 1952. FOO was often included on licence plates of cars and in nonsense sayings in the background of some frames such as "He who foos last foos best" or "Many smoke but foo men chew". Allegedly, "FOO" and "BAR" also occurred in Walt Kelly's "Pogo" strips. In the 1938 cartoon "The Daffy Doc", a very early version of Daffy Duck holds up a sign saying "SILENCE IS FOO!". Oddly, this seems to refer to some approving or positive affirmative use of foo. It has been suggested that this might be related to the Chinese word "fu" (sometimes transliterated "foo"), which can mean "happiness" when spoken with the proper tone (the lion-dog guardians flanking the steps of many Chinese restaurants are properly called "fu dogs"). Earlier versions of this entry suggested the possibility that hacker usage actually sprang from "FOO, Lampoons and Parody", the title of a comic book first issued in September 1958, a joint project of Charles and Robert Crumb. Though Robert Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later became one of the most important and influential artists in underground comics, this venture was hardly a success; indeed, the brothers later burned most of the existing copies in disgust. The title FOO was featured in large letters on the front cover. However, very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and students of Crumb's "oeuvre" have established that this title was a reference to the earlier Smokey Stover comics. An old-time member reports that in the 1959 "Dictionary of the TMRC Language", compiled at {TMRC} there was an entry that went something like this: FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME HUM." Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning. For more about the legendary foo counters, see {TMRC}. Almost the entire staff of what became the {MIT} {AI LAB} was involved with TMRC, and probably picked the word up there. Another correspondant cites the nautical construction "foo-foo" (or "poo-poo"), used to refer to something effeminate or some technical thing whose name has been forgotten, e.g. "foo-foo box", "foo-foo valve". This was common on ships by the early nineteenth century. Very probably, hackish "foo" had no single origin and derives through all these channels from Yiddish "feh" and/or English "fooey". [{Jargon File}] (1998-04-16)

Frege, (Friedrich Ludwig) Gottlob, 1848-1925, German mathematician and logician. Professor of mathematics at the University of Jena, 1879-1918. Largely unknown to, or misunderstood by, his contemporaries, he is now regarded by many as "beyond question the greatest logician of the Nineteenth Century" (quotation from Tarski). He must be regarded -- after Boole (q. v.) -- as the second founder of symbolic logic, the essential steps in the passage from the algebra of logic to the logistic method (see the article Logistic system) having been taken in his Begriffsschrift of 1879. In this work there appear tor the first time the propositional calculus in substantially its modern form, the notion of propositional function, the use of quantifiers, the explicit statement of primitive rules of inference, the notion of an hereditary property and the logical analysis of proof by mathematical induction or recursion (q. v.). This last is perhaps the most important element in the definition of an inductive cardinal number (q.v.) and provided the basis for Frege's derivation of arithmetic from logic in his Grundlagen der Anthmetik (1884) and Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, vol. 1 (1893), and vol. 2 (1903). The first volume of Grundgesetze der Arithmetik is the culmination of Frege's work, and we find here many important further ideas. In particular, there is a careful distinction between using a formula to express something else and naming a formula in order to make a syntactical statement about it, quotation marks being used in order to distinguish the name of a formula from the formula itself. In an appendix to the second volume of Grundgesetze , Frege acknowledges the presence of an inconsistency in his system through what is now known as the Russel paradox (see Paradoxes , logical), as had been called to his attention by Russell when the book was nearly through the press. -- A.C.

F scale: a measuring instrument used by Adorno to measure the authoritarian personality, by exploring the extent to which people agree with statements such 'Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn.'

Gharma-ja (Sanskrit) Gharma-ja [from gharma heat, warmth, perspiration from the verbal root ghṛ to moisten, wet (cf Greek thermos heat) + ja born] Sweat-born; title of Karttikeya, said to have been born of Siva’s vital sweat. Karttikeya is one of the most important of the kumaras of archaic Hindu occult legends, the kumaras being virginal divinities who sprang from the body of Brahma. As Brahma is the Third Logos, whatever minor parts the kumaras may play in subsequent cosmic history, their primary importance was in the building of the universe.

gnas skor ba. (nekorwa). In Tibetan, lit. "going around a [sacred] place," generally translated as "pilgrimage," a pervasive practice of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan pilgrimage is most often a communal practice, involving a group of persons of the same family, the same village, or the same monastery, in some cases led by one or more monks or lamas who provide information and religious instruction along the route. Pilgrimage is undertaken to accrue merit and to expiate transgressions, but it also plays an important social and economic role in Tibetan society. Once the pilgrimage begins, pilgrims will do everything possible not to turn back; failure to complete the journey is thought to be like breaking a vow. Pilgrims generally traverse the pilgrimage route on foot; it is said that more merit is accrued if one walks rather than travels on horseback. The length of the pilgrimage varies according to the distance traveled, the season, the number of mountain passes to be crossed, and the number of sites to be visited. The trip can sometimes take several years, especially if the pilgrims perform prostrations along the entire route. Pilgrims make offerings at the monasteries and temples they visit, both on behalf of themselves but also for relatives who have not made the journey. Monasteries offer pilgrims ceremonial scarves (kha btags), blessed pills, and sometimes also food and lodging. Among the most important destinations for pilgrims is the city of LHA SA. There are eight famous mountains and mountain ranges, including Mount KAILĀSA in western Tibet and Dag pa shel ri (the Crystal Mountain) in TSA RI, a site sacred to CAKRASAMVARA on the border with eastern Nepal, and further afield the sacred sites in India (BODHGAYĀ, SĀRNĀTH, etc.) and in China (WUTAISHAN, etc.). See also MAHĀSTHĀNA.

Godensho. (御伝鈔). In Japanese, "Biographical Notes," an important early biography of SHINRAN (1163-1273), in two rolls; written in 1295 by his great-grandson KAKUNYO (1270-1351), the third abbot of HONGANJI. Godensho is the abbreviated title of this work favored in JoDO SHINSHu communities; its full title is Honganji Shonin Shinran den e ("Biography with Illustrations of the Honganji Sage Shinran"). This text is often paired with illustrations in a version that is presumed to have been composed by Kakunyo's son Zonkaku (1290-1373) and painted by Joga Hogen. As few documents survive from Shinran's time, this biography is especially important in detailing the events in Shinran's life, and all later biographies draw upon it. One of the most important features of the Godensho is its identification of Shinran as being an earthly manifestation of AMITĀBHA.

Gu ge. The name of a kingdom in Mnga' ris (western Tibet) founded by descendants of the royal line that fled after the breakup of the central Tibetan kingdom following the rule and assassination of GLANG DAR MA. The kingdom lasted until the sixteenth century, with its capitals at Rtsa rang, THO LING, and DUNG DKAR; it reached its zenith during the tenth to thirteenth centuries. During the second half of the tenth century, the king of the Gu ge kingdom Lha bla ma YE SHES 'OD, a strong supporter of Buddhism, sent the translator RIN CHEN BZANG PO and a number of other Tibetans to India to study Buddhism. Rin chen bzang po's return in 978 marks the beginning of the later spread of Buddhism (PHYI DAR). Ye shes 'od's nephew BYANG CHUB 'OD successfully invited the famous Indian teacher ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNĀNA to Tibet; under him and his successors, temple building and scholarship flourished. The sculpture and wall paintings executed by artists from Kashmir and other areas, whom they invited to decorate the temples in their capitals as well as at ALCHI, TA PHO, and numerous smaller shrines, are still extant. Because of their remoteness, and because some of the areas formerly part of the Gu ge kingdom are now under the political jurisdiction of India, many of the temples from that period have escaped destruction and contain some of the most important examples of Buddhist art from that period.

Guhyasamājatantra. (T. Gsang ba 'dus pa'i rgyud; C. Yiqie rulai jingang sanye zuishang mimi dajiaowang jing; J. Issainyorai kongosangosaijohimitsu daikyoogyo; K. Ilch'e yorae kŭmgang samop ch'oesang pimil taegyowang kyong 一切如來金剛三業最上秘密大教王經). In Sanskrit, "Secret Assembly Tantra"; referred to in Tibet as the "king of tantras" (rgyud kyi rgyal po), it is among the most important of what later come to be called ANUTTARAYOGATANTRAs, or highest yoga tantras. It is also classified as a "father tantra" (PITṚTANTRA). The text was likely composed sometime between about 750 and 850 CE. It consists of eighteen chapters, the last of which is a supplement, referred to as the uttaratantra. The Guhyasamāja is one of the earliest tantras to present overtly antinomian practices, notably of a sexual nature, as well as the practices of ingesting impure substances. The text begins with a surprising rendition of the opening line of a Buddhist sutra (see EVAM MAYĀ sRUTAM), when it states, "Thus have I heard. At one time the Bhagavān was residing in the vaginas of the women who are the vajra essence of the body, speech, and mind of all the tathāgatas." Such passages led to the development of sophisticated hermeneutical systems for interpreting the tantras to discover their hidden meaning. Important Indian commentaries on this tantra include the PANCAKRAMA attributed to NĀGĀRJUNA, the Caryāmelāpakapradīpa attributed to ĀRYADEVA, and the Pradīpoddyotana attributed to CANDRAKĪRTI. In the MAndALA associated with the Ārya tradition of commentary (deriving from Nāgārjuna) there are thirty-two deities. The central deity of the mandala is Guhyasamāja, a manifestation of AKsOBHYA, surrounded by VAIROCANA in the east, RATNASAMBHAVA (or Ratnaketu) in the south, AMITĀBHA in the west, and AMOGHASIDDHI in the north, each in sexual union with a consort. The central deity is blue in color, with three faces and six arms. Seated in the posture of sexual union, he embraces his consort Sparsavajra. In addition, there are the ten "fierce kings" (krodharāja), eight bodhisattvas, and four goddesses. Like other tantras of its class, the SĀDHANAs of the Guhyasamāja set forth the practice of the stage of generation (UTPATTIKRAMA) and the stage of completion (NIsPANNAKRAMA), with its attendant sexual yogas, toward the achievement of an illusory body (MĀYĀKĀYA). The text was translated into Chinese by Dānapāla around 1002, but was not particularly influential in East Asian Buddhism, where its explicit sexual language offended more prudish Confucian sensibilities. It was translated into Tibetan in the eleventh century by RIN CHEN BZANG PO and sraddhākaravarman. In Tibet, the tantra was highly influential, ranking in importance with the HEVAJRATANTRA, CAKRASAMVARATANTRA, and KĀLACAKRATANTRA.

Guishan Lingyou. [alt. Weishan Lingyou] (J. Isan Reiyu; K. Wisan Yongu 潙山靈祐) (771-853). Chinese CHAN master and cofounder of the GUIYANG ZONG of the mature Chan tradition. Guishan was a native of Fuzhou prefecture in present-day Fujian province. He was ordained at the age of fifteen and studied SuTRA and VINAYA at Longxingsi in Hangzhou prefecture (present-day Zhejiang province). Later, Guishan became the disciple of the eminent Chan master BAIZHANG HUAIHAI (720-814) of Hongzhou prefecture (present-day Jiangxi province). Along with HUANGBO XIYUN (d. 850?), Guishan became one of Baizhang's most prominent disciples and an emblematic teacher of Tang-dynasty Chan. He later moved to Guishan, whence he acquired his toponym, and taught more than forty close disciples. Among his disciples, the most important is YANGSHAN HUIJI (807-883). The names of the mountains on which Guishan and his student Yangshan resided were used collectively to refer to their prosperous Chan lineage, the Guiyang. He was later bestowed the title Chan master Dayuan (Great and Perfect). His teachings are recorded in the Tanzhou Guishan Lingyou chanshi yulu and GUISHAN JINGCE.

Gunaprabha. (T. Yon tan 'od; C. Deguang/Junabolapo; J. Tokko/Kunaharaba; K. Tokkwang/Kunaballaba 德光/瞿拏鉢剌婆) (d.u.; c. seventh century). Indian YOGĀCĀRA scholar and VINAYA specialist. In the Tibetan tradition, he is considered one of the most important of the Indian scholars because of his exposition of the vinaya. In the list of the "six ornaments and two supreme ones of JAMBUDVĪPA," the six ornaments are NĀGĀRJUNA and ĀRYADEVA, ASAnGA and VASUBANDHU, and DIGNĀGA and DHARMAKĪRTI; the two supreme ones are Gunaprabha and sĀKYAPRABHA. Gunaprabha is said to have been an adviser to King Harsa, who unified most of northern India following the demise of the Gupta empire. Born into a brāhmana family in MATHURĀ during the seventh century, Gunaprabha is said to have first studied the MAHĀYĀNA teachings and wrote several treatises on YOGĀCĀRA. He is known as the author of the Bodhisattvabhumivṛtti, a commentary on the BODHISATTVABHuMI, the Bodhisattvasīlaparivartabhāsya, an expansion of that commentary, and the PaNcaskandhavivarana, an exegesis of VASUBANDHU's work. Subsequently, this same Gunaprabha seems to have abandoned Yogācāra for sRĀVAKAYĀNA teachings and thereafter devoted several of his works to critiquing various aspects of the Mahāyāna. (There is some controversy as to whether Gunaprabha the Yogācāra teacher is the same as Gunaprabha the vinaya specialist, but prevailing scholarly opinion now accepts that they are identical.) Taking up residence at a monastery in Mathurā, he became a master of the vinaya, with a specialty in the monastic code of the MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA school (see MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA). His most influential work is the VINAYASuTRA. Despite its title, the work is not a sutra (in the sense of a work ascribed to the Buddha) but is instead an authored work composed of individual aphoristic statements (sutra). The text offers a summary or condensation of the massive Mulasarvāstivāda vinaya. At approximately one quarter the length of this larger vinaya, Gunaprabha's abridgment seems to have functioned as a kind of primer on the monastic code, omitting lengthy passages of scripture and providing the code of conduct that monks were expected to follow. In this sense, the text is an important work for determining what lived monastic practice may actually have been like in medieval India. The Vinayasutra became the most important vinaya text for Tibetan Buddhism, being studied in all of the major sects; in the DGE LUGS, it is one of the five books (GZHUNG LNGA) that served as the basis of the monastic curriculum. According to legend, Gunaprabha traveled to the TUŞITA heaven in order to discuss with MAITREYA his remaining doubts regarding ten points of doctrine. The accounts of this trip say that Gunaprabha did not learn anything, either because Maitreya was not an ordained monk and hence was unable to teach him anything or because Maitreya saw that Gunaprabha did not require any additional teaching. XUANZANG writes about Gunaprabha in his DA TANG XIYU JI ("Great Tang Dynasty Record of [Travels to] the Western Regions").

hack mode "jargon" Engaged in {hack}ing. A Zen-like state of total focus on The Problem that may be achieved when one is hacking (this is why every good hacker is part mystic). Ability to enter such concentration at will correlates strongly with wizardliness; it is one of the most important skills learned during {larval stage}. Sometimes amplified as "deep hack mode". Being yanked out of hack mode (see {priority interrupt}) may be experienced as a physical shock, and the sensation of being in hack mode is more than a little habituating. The intensity of this experience is probably by itself sufficient explanation for the existence of hackers, and explains why many resist being promoted out of positions where they can code. See also {cyberspace}. Some aspects of hackish etiquette will appear quite odd to an observer unaware of the high value placed on hack mode. For example, if someone appears at your door, it is perfectly okay to hold up a hand (without turning one's eyes away from the screen) to avoid being interrupted. One may read, type, and interact with the computer for quite some time before further acknowledging the other's presence (of course, he or she is reciprocally free to leave without a word). The understanding is that you might be in {hack mode} with a lot of delicate state in your head, and you dare not {swap} that context out until you have reached a good point to pause. See also {juggling eggs}. [{Jargon File}] (1996-07-31)

hack mode ::: (jargon) Engaged in hacking. A Zen-like state of total focus on The Problem that may be achieved when one is hacking (this is why every good hacker with wizardliness; it is one of the most important skills learned during larval stage. Sometimes amplified as deep hack mode.Being yanked out of hack mode (see priority interrupt) may be experienced as a physical shock, and the sensation of being in hack mode is more than a little explanation for the existence of hackers, and explains why many resist being promoted out of positions where they can code. See also cyberspace.Some aspects of hackish etiquette will appear quite odd to an observer unaware of the high value placed on hack mode. For example, if someone appears at your in your head, and you dare not swap that context out until you have reached a good point to pause. See also juggling eggs.[Jargon File] (1996-07-31)

halma ::: n. --> The long jump, with weights in the hands, -- the most important of the exercises of the Pentathlon.

Heart The heart is the seat in the human body of buddhic consciousness, corresponding to the anahata chakra which is ruled by the planet Venus. There are three principal centers of the human body: the heart as the center of spiritual consciousness; the head as the center of mental consciousness; and the navel as the center of kamic or emotional consciousness. The heart is the organ through which the higher ego acts, seeking to impress the lower self which works through the brain. In this sense the heart is the most important part of the body, and when developed leads to spiritual mastery, the unity of atma-buddhi-manas. In another sense, the heart corresponds to prana, “but only because Prana and the Auric Envelope are essentially the same, and because again as Jiva it is the same as the Universal Deity” (BCW 12:694).

Hemis Monastery. A monastery located about twenty-five miles (forty km.) southeast of Leh, the capital of Ladakh. Hemis Monastery is sited just south of the Indus River, within present-day Hemis National Park. The largest monastery in the kingdom of Ladakh, Hemis Monastery was founded in the mid-seventeenth century by Stag tsang ras pa (Taktsang Repa), who was supported by King Seng ge rnam rgyal (Senge Namgyal, 1570-1642), one of the most important kings in the history of Ladakhi Buddhism. Hemis is central to the 'BRUG PA BKA' BRGYUD community in the region, and the two-day 'CHAM (sacred dance) festival that is held each summer in honor of PADMASAMBHAVA is widely known throughout the area.

Honcho kosoden. (本朝高僧伝). In Japanese, "Biographies of Eminent Clerics of Japan"; a late Japanese biographic collection, written by the RINZAISHu ZEN monk Mangen Shiban (1626-1710) in 1702, in a total of seventy-five rolls. The Honcho kosoden includes the biographies of 1,662 Japanese priests affiliated with a variety of Buddhist sects (except, prominently, the JoDO SHINSHu and NICHIRENSHu) from the sixth century onward. Unlike Shiban's 1678 ENPo DENToROKU, which contains over one thousand biographies of only Zen clerics and lay practitioners, the Honcho kosoden also discusses clerics from other schools of Japanese Buddhism. The biographies are divided into ten general categories: founders, exegetes, meditators, thaumaturges, VINAYA specialists, propagators, ascetics, pilgrims, scriptural reciters, and others. As the most comprehensive and voluminous Japanese collection of biographies of eminent clerics, the text is an indispensable work for research into the lineage histories of many of the most important schools of Japanese Buddhism. In 1867, the SHINGONSHu monk Hosokawa Dokai (1816-1876) compiled a supplement to this collection, titled the Zoku Nippon kosoden ("Supplement to the Eminent Clerics of Japan"), which including biographies of over two hundred clerics of the premodern period, in a total of eleven rolls.

Hypnotism ::: Derived from a Greek word hypnos, which means "sleep," and strictly speaking the word hypnotismshould be used only for those psychological-physiological phenomena in which the subject manifestingthem is in a condition closely resembling sleep. The trouble is that in any attempt to study these variouspsychological powers of the human constitution it is found that they are many and of divers kinds; butthe public, and even the technical experimenters, usually group all these psychologicalphenomena under the one word hypnotism, and therefore it is a misnomer. One of such powers, forinstance, which is well known, is called fascination. Another shows a more or less complete suspensionof the individual will and of the individual activities of him who is the sufferer from such psychologicalpower, although in other respects he may show no signs of physical sleep. Another again -- and thisperhaps is the most important of all so far as actual dangers lie -- passes under the name of suggestion, anexceedingly good name, because it describes the field of action of perhaps the most subtle and dangerousside-branch of the exercise of the general power or force emanating from the mind of the operator.The whole foundation upon which this power rests lies in the human psychological constitution; and itcan be easily and neatly expressed in a few words. It is the power emanating from one mind, which canaffect another mind and direct or misdirect the latter's course of action. This is in nine hundred andninety-nine times out of a thousand a wrong thing to do; and this fact would readily be understood byeverybody did men know, as they should, the difference between the higher and the lower nature of man,the difference between his incorruptible, death-defying individuality, his spiritual nature, on the onehand; and, on the other hand, the brain-mind and all its train of weak and fugitive thoughts.Anyone who has seen men and women in the state of hypnosis must realize not only how dangerous,how baleful and wrong it is, but also that it exemplifies the trance state perfectly. The reason is that theintermediate nature, or the psychomental apparatus, of the human being in this state has been displacedfrom its seat, in other words, is disjoined or dislocated; and there remains but the vitalized human body,with its more or less imperfect functioning of the brain cells and nervous apparatus. H. P. Blavatsky inher Theosophical Glossary writes: "It is the most dangerous of practices, morally and physically, as itinterferes with the nerve-fluid and the nerves controlling the circulation in the capillary blood-vessels."(See also Mesmerism)

In addition to its more than five thousand main entries, this volume also contains a number of reference tools. Because the various historical periods and dynasties of India, China, Korea, and Japan appear repeatedly in the entries, historical chronologies of the Buddhist periods of those four countries have been provided. In order to compare what events were occurring across the Buddhist world at any given time, we have provided a timeline of Buddhism. Eight maps are provided, showing regions of the Buddhist world and of the traditional Buddhist cosmology. We have also included a List of Lists. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with Buddhism has been struck by the Buddhist propensity for making lists of almost anything. The MahAvyutpatti is in fact organized not alphabetically but by list, including such familiar lists as the four noble truths, the twelve links of dependent origination, and the thirty-two major marks of the Buddha, as well as less familiar lists, such as various kinds of grain (twenty items) and types of ornaments (sixty-four items). Here we have endeavored to include several of the most important lists, beginning with the one vehicle and ending with the one hundred dharmas of the YogAcAra school. After some discussion, we decided to forgo listing the 84,000 afflictions and their 84,000 antidotes.

Indrabhuti. (T. In dra bo dhi). There are at least three figures by this name known to the Indian and Tibetan traditions. Perhaps the most important is a semimythical king of OddIYĀNA ([alt. Uddiyāna], probably the Swat region of northwest India but also identified as Orissa) at the time of the miraculous birth of PADMASAMBHAVA; according to tradition, he had no male heir, and so he installed Padmasambhava as crown prince. A second Indrabhuti is listed among the eighty-four MAHĀSIDDHA as a teacher of TILOPA; he may be the Indrabhuti, closely associated with mahāsiddha Lawapa, who is first in the lineage list (T. gsan yig) of the VAJRAYOGINĪ practices of the Tibetan SA SKYA sect and a brother of Laksmīnkarā. There is also a ninth-century Indian king and tantric master, a student of Ācārya Kukurāja, who authored the Cittaratnavisodhana, called Indrabhuti.

inline image "web" An image that appears within the body of a {web page}. Most graphical {web browsers} display images inline (with an option to turn off inline images, to speed up the display of web pages). Other {image formats} may have to be displayed in a separate {window} and/or by another {application program}. An inline image in a web page is specified with the "IMG" {HTML} {tag}, which can take many {attributes}, the most important of which is the SRC attribute that gives the {URL} from which to fetch the image. The ALT attribute gives text to display in place of the image for users with images disabled or who are using text-only browsers or text-to-speech convertors (e.g. blind users). (2011-01-04)

It is noteworthy that there is some parallelism between the root-races and the periods beginning with great geological, climatic, and biological changes called by geologists “revolutions.” This applies even to the earliest or ethereal races. At least four and possibly more have taken place, the most important and earth-shaking being that which ushered in the fourth round (about the end of the Precambrian era as already mentioned). As we are only in the fifth root-race no doubt we shall experience other cataclysmic changes during the closing period of this round on this globe. We read in The Secret Doctrine:

Its first manifestation took place in Egypt where Judaism came in contact with Hellenic culture, and the result was the development of an extensive speculation among the Jews of Alexandria, the most important representative of which was Philo (q.v.). With the disappearance of the Egyptian Diaspora its philosophy vanished and only slight vestiges of its teachings can be traced in the early Agadic literature.

Izdubar (Babylonian) An ancient hero of Erech, whose exploits are recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the most important literary works to have been excavated in Nineveh, coming from the royal collection of Assurbanipal (668-26 BC), in the form of twelve tablets (although not all are completely preserved). The hero’s name, written ideographically, was formerly read Izdubar, until another fragment of the same cycle gave the rendition Gilgamesh.

JavaScript "language" (Formerly "LiveScript") {Netscape}'s simple, cross-{platform}, {web} {scripting language}, only very vaguely related to {Java} (which is a {Sun} trademark). JavaScript is intimately tied to the {web}, and currently runs in only three environments - as a {server}-side {scripting} language, as an embedded language in {server-parsed HTML}, and as an embedded language run in web {browsers} where it is the most important part of {DHTML}. JavaScript has a simplified {C}-like {syntax} and is tightly integrated with the browser {Document Object Model}. It is useful for implementing enhanced {forms}, simple web {database} {front-ends}, and navigation enhancements. It is unusual in that the {scope} of {variables} extends throughout the function in which they are declared rather than the smallest enclosing block as in C. JavaScript originated from {Netscape} and, for a time, only their products supported it. {Microsoft} now supports a work-alike which they call JScript. The resulting inconsistencies make it difficult to write JavaScript that behaves the same in all browsers. This could be attributed to the slow progress of JavaScript through the standards bodies. JavaScript runs "100x" slower than {C}, as it is purely interpreted ({Java} runs "10x" slower than C code). {Netscape} and allies say JavaScript is an "open standard" in an effort to keep {Microsoft} from monopolising web software as they have desktop software. {Netscape} and {Sun} have co-operated to enable {Java} and JavaScript to exchange messages and data. See also {VBScript}. {Usenet} newsgroup: {news:comp.lang.javascript}. Mailing List: "majordomo@obscure.org" ("subscribe javascript" in body). (2003-04-28)

JavaScript ::: (language) (Formerly LiveScript) Netscape's simple, cross-platform, World-Wide Web scripting language, only very vaguely related to Java (which is a as an embedded language in server-parsed HTML, and as an embedded language run in web browsers where it is the most important part of DHTML.JavaScript has a simplified C-like syntax and is tightly integrated with the browser Document Object Model. It is useful for implementing enhanced forms, that the scope of variables extends throughout the function in which they are declared rather than the smallest enclosing block as in C.JavaScript originated from Netscape and, for a time, only their products supported it. Microsoft now supports a work-alike which they call JScript. The same in all browsers. This could be attributed to the slow progress of JavaScript through the standards bodies.JavaScript runs 100x slower than C, as it is purely interpreted (Java runs 10x slower than C code). Netscape and allies say JavaScript is an open have desktop software. Netscape and Sun have co-operated to enable Java and JavaScript to exchange messages and data.See also VBScript.Usenet newsgroup: comp.lang.javascript.Mailing List: (subscribe javascript in body).(2003-04-28)

Jhumur: “Throughout Savitri I have noticed all the different times of the day and the position of the sun in relation to the earth. It runs through the book, the symbol dawn, night, not only that but there are different states of illumination, awakening of the consciousness progressively. Sometimes it falls into the darkness, sometimes twilight when one is caught between two states, and at the end it is the everlasting day. So the kingdoms of the rising sun represent states of being where the light is the most important. Mother always says that the sun is the symbol of the supreme truth, the supreme, the supreme wisdom. It is the world where the supreme truth and supreme wisdom rule, govern. Whereas In many other worlds this light gets covered, it gets clouded over but here there are the kingdoms of the rising sun because they are the godheads of the mind and the mind is an instrument of light. But it is a small early instrument, little mind, so it is just rising, it hasn’t come to its full glory. The kingdoms are the planes of consciousness where you have a little light, a little clarity, a little illumination. That is how I understand the main function of the mind, to seek for light. It is an instrument for seeking light although it often dodges light where the perversity comes in.”

Kailāsa. The Sanskrit name for one of the most important sacred mountains in Asia, generally referred to in English as Kailash or Mount Kailash. It is 21,778 ft. high and is located in southwestern Tibet, not far from the current borders of India and Nepal. Lake Manasarovar is located eighteen miles to the southeast; these two sites have long been places of pilgrimage for Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and followers of Tibetan BON, some of whom have regarded the striking dome-shaped peak as Mount SUMERU. The mountain is particularly important in Tibetan Buddhism, where it is called Gangs dkar Ti se ("White Snow Mountain Ti se") or simply Gangs rin po che ("Precious Snow Mountain"). Pilgrims from across the Tibetan Buddhist world visit Mount Kailāsa, especially in the Year of the Horse, which occurs once every twelve years in the Tibetan calendrical cycle. Within that year, it is considered auspicious to visit the mountain at the time that marks the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and passage into PARINIRVĀnA (generally falling in May or June, depending on the lunar calendar). The primary form of practice is the thirty-two mile clockwise circumambulation of the mountain, often completed in a single day, with specific rituals and practices performed along the route. It is said that one circumambulation purifies the negative KARMAN of one lifetime, ten circumambulations purify the negative KARMAN accumulated over the course of a KALPA, and one hundred circumambulations ensure enlightenment. The mountain came to take on numerous tantric associations beginning in the eleventh century. According to a popular story, the yogin MI LA RAS PA won control of the mountain for the Buddhists by defeating a rival Bon priest, Na ro bon chung, in a contest of miracles. The mountain later became an important meditation site for the followers of Mi la ras pa, principally members of the 'BRUG PA BKA' BRGYUD and 'BRI GUNG BKA' BRGYUD sects. Both sĀKYAMUNI Buddha and PADMASAMBHAVA are said to have visited Kailāsa. One of the most important associations of Mount Kailāsa is with the CAKRASAMVARATANTRA, which names twenty-four sacred lands (PĪtHA) as potent locations for tantric practice. The CakrasaMvara literature recounts how long ago these twenty-four lands came under the control of Mahesvara (siva) in the form of Rudra Bhairava. The buddha VAJRADHARA, in the wrathful form of a HERUKA deity, subdued BHAIRAVA, transforming each of the twenty-four sites into a MAndALA of the deity CakrasaMvara and his retinue. In Tibetan literature, Mount Kailāsa came to be identified with one of the twenty-four sites, the one called Himavat or Himālaya ("The Snowy," or "The Snow Mountain"); this was one of several important transpositions of sacred locations in India onto Tibetan sites. The BKA' BRGYUD sect grouped the peak together with two other important mountain pilgrimage sites in southern Tibet, LA PHYI and TSA RI, identified respectively as CakrasaMvara's body, speech, and mind. These claims drew criticism from some Tibetan quarters, such as the renowned scholar SA SKYA PAnDITA, who argued that the sites associated with CakrasaMvara were located not in Tibet but in India. Such criticism has not prevented Mount Kailāsa from remaining one of the most important pilgrimage places in the Tibetan cultural domain.

Kaiyuan Shijiao lu. (J. Kaigen Shakkyoroku; K. Kaewon Sokkyo nok 開元釋教録). In Chinese, "Record of sĀKYAMUNI's Teachings, Compiled during the Kaiyuan Era"; a comprehensive catalogue (JINGLU) of Buddhist texts compiled by the monk Zhisheng (658-740) in 730. The catalogue began as Zhisheng's own private record of Buddhist scriptures but was adopted soon afterward by the Tang imperial court as an official catalogue of the Chinese Buddhist canon (DAZANGJING) and entered into the canon as well. Zhisheng divided his catalogue into two major sections, a chronological register (rolls one through ten) and a topical register (rolls eleven through twenty). The chronological register contains a list of translated scriptures, organized according to translator's name and the period during which the text was translated. Because this register provides alternative titles of texts, numbers of volumes and rolls, names of translators, and a list of alternate translations, it is an invaluable tool for studying the production and circulation of Buddhist texts in medieval China. The topical register contains "lists of canonical texts" (ruzang lu), which subsequently became the standard rosters from which East Asian Buddhism constructed its canon. This roster also includes 406 titles of texts classified as APOCRYPHA, that is, scriptures listed as either of "doubtful authenticity" (YIJING) or explicitly "spurious" (weijing), which Zhisheng determined were probably of indigenous Chinese origin and therefore not authentic translations of the Buddha's words (BUDDHAVACANA). The renown of the catalogue is due to the great strides Zhisheng made toward eliminating discrepancies between the chronological and topical rosters, inconsistencies that had marred previous catalogues. The content and structure of all later catalogues is derived from Zhisheng's work, making the Kaiyuan Shijiao lu the most important of all the Buddhist scriptural catalogues compiled in East Asia.

Kamalasīla. (T. Ka ma la shī la) (c. 740-795). One of the most important Madhyamaka authors of late Indian Buddhism, a major representative of the Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis, and a participant in the famous BSAM YAS DEBATE. According to Tibetan doxographies, he was a proponent of the YOGĀCĀRA-SVĀTANTRIKA-MADHYAMAKA. Although little is known about his life, according to Tibetan sources he was a monk and teacher at NĀLANDĀ. Tibetan sources also count him as one of three (together with sĀNTARAKsITA and JNĀNAGARBHA) "Eastern Svātantrikas" (RANG RGYUD SHAR GSUM), suggesting that he was from Bengal. He was clearly a direct disciple of sāntaraksita, composing important commentaries on his teacher's two major works, the MADHYAMAKĀLAMKĀRA and the TATTVASAMGRAHA. The latter commentary, which is extant in Sanskrit, is an important source for both Hindu and Buddhist philosophical positions in the eighth century. sāntaraksita had gone to Tibet at the invitation of the Tibetan king KHRI SRONG LDE BTSAN, where, with the assistance of PADMASAMBHAVA, he founded BSAM YAS, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. According to tradition, at the time of his death sāntaraksita warned that a mistaken philosophical view would become established in Tibet and advised the king to invite Kamalasīla to come to Tibet in order to dispel it. This mistaken view was apparently that of Heshang MOHEYAN, a Northern CHAN (BEI ZONG) monk who had developed a following at the Tibetan court. Kamalasīla was invited, and a debate was held between the Indian monk and his Chinese counterpart, with the king serving as judge. It is unclear whether a face-to-face debate took place or rather an exchange of documents. According to Tibetan sources, the king declared Kamalasīla the winner, named MADHYAMAKA as the official philosophical school of his realm, and banished the Chinese contingent. (Chinese records describe a different outcome.) This event, variously known as the BSAM YAS DEBATE, the Council of Bsam yas, and the Council of Lhasa, is regarded as one of the key moments in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. Three of Kamalasīla's most important works appear to have been composed in response to the issues raised in the debate, although whether all three were composed in Tibet is not established with certainty. These texts, each entitled BHĀVANĀKRAMA or "Stages of Meditation," set forth the process for the potential BODHISATTVA to cultivate BODHICITTA and then develop sAMATHA and VIPAsYANĀ and progress through the bodhisattva stages (BHuMI) to buddhahood. The cultivation of vipasyanā requires the use of both scripture (ĀGAMA) and reasoning (YUKTI) to understand emptiness (suNYATĀ); in the first Bhāvanākrama, he sets forth the three forms of wisdom (PRAJNĀ): the wisdom derived from hearing or learning (sRUTAMAYĪPRAJNĀ), the wisdom derived from thinking and reflection (CINTĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ), and the wisdom derived from meditation (BHĀVANĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ). This "gradual" approach, very different from what was advocated in the Chinese CHAN ZONG, is set forth in all three of the Bhāvanākrama, which, according to Tibetan tradition, were composed in Tibet after the Bsam yas debate, at the request of the king. However, only the third, and the briefest, directly considers, and refutes, the view of "no mental activity" (amanasikāra), which is associated with Moheyan. It was also during his time in Tibet that Kamalasīla composed his most important independent (i.e., noncommentarial) philosophical work, the MADHYAMAKĀLOKA, or "Illumination of the Middle Way," a wide-ranging exposition of the Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis. It deals with a number of central epistemological and logical issues to articulate what is regarded as the defining tenet of the Yogācāra-Svātantrika-Madhyamaka school: that major YOGĀCĀRA doctrines, such as "mind-only" (CITTAMĀTRA), and the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA) are important in initially overcoming misconceptions, but they are in fact only provisional (NEYĀRTHA) teachings for those who have not yet understood the Madhyamaka view. The Madhyamakāloka is also important for its exploration of such central MAHĀYĀNA doctrines as the TATHĀGATAGARBHA and the question of the EKAYĀNA. On this latter point, Kamalasīla argues against the Yogācāra position that there are three final vehicles (for the sRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, and BODHISATTVA, with some beings excluded from any path to liberation) in favor of the position that there is a single vehicle to buddhahood (BUDDHAYĀNA) for all beings. Kamalasīla is said to have been murdered in Tibet by partisans of the Chinese position, who caused his death by squeezing his kidneys.

Karma pa. In Tibetan, a title given to the incarnate lama (SPRUL SKU) identified at birth in each generation as the head of the KARMA BKA' BRGYUD subsect of the BKA' RGYUD sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is commonly etymologized as "man of [enlightened] action." In the history of Tibetan Buddhism, the lineage of the Karma pas is considered to be the first to institutionalize its succession of incarnate lamas, a practice later adopted by the other sects. According to tradition, at the time of his death, each Karma pa composes a letter that specifies the date and location of his next incarnation. This letter is given to a close disciple, who then reveals its contents upon the death of the Karma pa, with the information in the letter used to locate the child who has been born as the next Karma pa. Among the most famous and sacred possessions of the Karma pa is a black crown, said to be made from the hair of one hundred thousand dĀKINĪS. The actual crown is said to be invisible to persons lacking sufficient merit. However, during the Ming dynasty, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402-1424) presented the fifth Karma pa with a visible physical replica of the crown. The replica itself is said to have great power; the "black hat ceremony," in which the Karma pa dons the crown, is among the most important in the sect. In the ceremony, the Karma pa holds the hat upon his head; otherwise, it is said, it will fly off into space. It is also said that those who see the crown will be liberated from rebirth. Due to the importance of the crown, the Karma pas are sometimes called the "black crowned" (zhwa nag). In the nineteenth century, a Western misunderstanding of this term led to the identification of a sect of Tibetan Buddhism called the "BLACK HATS," a mistake that persists in some accounts of Tibetan Buddhism. Like the DALAI LAMAs, the Karma pas are considered to be emanations of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA. Also like the Dalai Lamas, the Karma pas have been among the most important and revered religious figures in the history of Tibet; they include many great scholars and yogins. Some have also had political power, at times leading to conflicts, sometimes polemical, and sometimes military, with the DGE LUGS PA. Although the main seat of the Karma pas was MTSHUR PHU Monastery in central Tibet, the Karma pas tended to travel widely. Their importance and influence extended throughout the Tibetan cultural domain, including China. The lineage includes:

Kierkegaardianism ::: A set of philosophical, theological, and psychological positions based on the work of the 19th-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard's work focuses on the existing individual and the struggle to become an authentic individual. Kierkegaard's work was among the most important intellectual foundations for the 20th-century philosophical movement known as existentialism.

Klong chen rab 'byams. (Longchen Rabjam) (1308-1364). Also known as Klong chen pa (Longchenpa). An esteemed master and scholar of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism known especially for his promulgation of RDZOGS CHEN. Klong chen pa is believed to be the direct reincarnation of PADMA LAS 'BREL RTSAL, who revealed the Rdzogs chen snying thig, and also of PADMA GSAL, who first received those teachings from the Indian master PADMASAMBHAVA. Born in the central Tibetan region of G.yo ru (Yoru), he received ordination at the age of twelve. At nineteen, he entered GSANG PHU NE'U THOG monastery where he engaged in a wide range of studies, including philosophy, numerous systems of SuTRA and TANTRA, and the traditional Buddhist sciences, including grammar and poetics. Having trained under masters as diverse as the abbots of Gsang phu ne'u thog and the third KARMA PA, RANG 'BYUNG RDO RJE, he achieved great scholarly mastery of numerous traditions, including the Rnying ma, SA SKYA, and BKA' BRGYUD sects. However, Klong chen pa quickly became disillusioned at the arrogance and pretension of many scholars of his day, and in his mid-twenties gave up the monastery to pursue the life of a wandering ascetic. At twenty-nine, he met the great yogin Kumārarāja at BSAM YAS monastery, who accepted him as a disciple and transmitted the three classes of rdzogs chen (rdzogs chen sde gsum), a corpus of materials that would become a fundamental part of Klong chen pa's later writings and teaching career. Klong chen pa lived during a period of great political change in Tibet, as the center of political authority and power shifted from Sa skya to the Phag mo gru pa hierarchs. Having fallen out of favor with the new potentate, TAI SI TU Byang chub rgyal mtshan (Jangchub Gyaltsen, 1302-1364), he was forced to spend some ten years as a political exile in the Bum thang region of Bhutan, where he founded eight monasteries including Thar pa gling (Tarpa ling). Among the most important and well-known works in Klong chen pa's extensive literary corpus are his redaction of the meditation and ritual manuals of the heart essence (SNYING THIG), composed mainly in the hermitage of GANGS RI THOD DKAR. Other important works include his exegesis on the theory and practice of rdzogs chen, such as the MDZOD BDUN ("seven treasuries") and the NGAL GSO SKOR GSUM ("Trilogy on Rest"). Klong chen pa's writings are renowned for their poetic style and refinement. They formed the basis for a revitalization of Rnying ma doctrine led by the eighteenth-century visionary and treasure revealer (GTER STON) 'JIGS MED GLING PA.

klong chen snying thig. (longchen nyingtik). In Tibetan, the "Heart Essence of the Great Expanse," one of the most important cycles of "treasure texts" (GTER MA) of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. They are RDZOGS CHEN teachings revealed by 'JIGS MED GLING PA in 1757. The teachings were a dgongs gter, or "mind treasure," discovered by him in his own mind. They are considered to embody the two major snying thig lineages, the BI MA SNYING THIG brought to Tibet by VIMALAMITRA and the MKHA' 'GRO SNYING THIG brought to Tibet by PADMASAMBHAVA. The revelation eventually encompassed three volumes, including dozens of individual treatises, SĀDHANAS, and prayers.

Kolarian The indigenous non-Aryan races of India are divided into three great classes: Tibeto-Burmese, Kolarian, and Dravidian. Although generally regarded as aboriginal, the Kolarians are known to have entered Bengal by means of the northeastern passes: they encountered the Dravidians in central India, who broke up the Kolarians and pushed them towards the east and west. Thus when the Aryans entered India, the Kolarians again succumbed to the invaders and were still more scattered into smaller groups. There are nine principal languages of the Kolarian group of which the most important is Santali. It is not akin to the Sanskrit, nor does it employ the Devanagari alphabet.

Kyogyo shinsho. (教行信証). In Japanese, "Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Realization," composed by the Japanese JoDO SHINSHu teacher SHINRAN (1173-1263), also known as the Ken jodo shinjitsu kyogyosho monrui. The Kyogyo shinsho is considered one of the most important texts of the Jodo Shinshu tradition. The exact dates of its compilation are unknown, but it seems to have gradually developed into its current shape over the first half of the thirteenth century. Several other similar works were also composed during this period by disciples of HoNEN, largely in response to the monk MYoE KoBEN's criticism of exclusive nenbutsu (C. NIANFO), the hallmark of the Jodo traditions. The Kyogyo shinsho largely consists of citations of scriptural passages on the practice of nenbutsu or invocation of the name of the buddha AMITĀBHA. Perhaps the most important section of the Kyogyo shinsho is that on faith (shinjin; C. XINXIN), where Shinran attempted to demonstrate that faith is based on the practice of nenbutsu and comes not from the effort made by the practitioner but from Amitābha himself (see TARIKI). Citing the SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA's teachings on the original vows (hongan) of the BODHISATTVA DHARMĀKARA (the future Amitābha), Shinran also emphasized the importance of the "single nenbutsu" (ĪCHINENGI) in attaining rebirth in the PURE LAND. He also sought to legitimize the practice of nenbutsu through recourse to the notion of the "final age of the DHARMA" (J. mappo, C. MOFA) when other types of Buddhist practice were ineffective.

lalanā. (T. brkyang ma). In tantric physiology, the channel (NĀdĪ) that runs in males from the right nostril to the base of the spine and in females from the left nostril to the base of the spine. It is one of the three main channels, together with the central channel (AVADHuTĪ), and the right channel in females and the left channel in males (RASANĀ). According to some systems, 72,000 channels are found in the body, serving as the conduits for subtle energies or winds (PRĀnA). The most important of these channels are the central channel (avadhutī), the lalanā, and the rasanā. The central channel runs from the place between the eyebrows to the crown of the head and down in front of the spinal column, ending at the genitals. The right and left channels run parallel to the central channel on either side. These two channels wrap around the central channel at various points, of which as many as seven are enumerated. These points, called wheels or CAKRAs, are located between the eyes, at the crown of the head, at the throat, at the heart, at the solar plexus, at the base of the spine, and at the tip of sexual organ. In highest yoga tantra (ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA), especially in practices associated with the "stage of completion" (NIsPANNAKRAMA), much emphasis is placed on loosening these knots in order to cause the winds to flow freely through the central channel.

Lamotte, Étienne. (1903-1983). A Belgian Buddhologist and Roman Catholic monsignor, considered to be the principal successor of LOUIS DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN in the Franco-Belgian school of European Buddhist Studies. After receiving his doctorate in 1930 (with a dissertation on the Bhagavadgītā), Lamotte taught for forty-five years (1932-1977) as a professor at the Université catholique de Louvain. In 1953, he was awarded the Francqui Prize, a prestigious Belgian prize awarded to scholars and scientists under the age of fifty. Making use of his knowledge of Sanskrit, Pāli, Tibetan, and Chinese, he made definitive French translations, all with extensive annotation, of a wide range of important Indian sutra and treatises, including the suRAMGAMASAMĀDHISuTRA, VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, SAMDHINIRMOCANASuTRA, VASUBANDHU's KARMASIDDHIPRAKARAnA, and ASAnGA's MAHĀYĀNASAMGRAHA. He was also the first to translate the lengthy prolegomenon to the *MahāprajNāpāramitāsāstra, a massive commentary on the "Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra" extant only in a Chinese recension known as the DAZHIDU LUN, which is attributed by the East Asian tradition to NĀGĀRJUNA. Lamotte's annotated translation of this text was published in five volumes between 1944 and 1980 but remained unfinished at the time of his death. Among his monographs, perhaps the most important is his comprehensive history of early Indian Buddhism published in 1958, Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien: des origines à l'ère saka (translated into English in 1988 as History of Indian Buddhism: From its Origins to the saka Era), which remains the most extensive such history yet produced in a Western language.

Lam rim chung ba. (Lamrim Chungwa). In Tibetan, "Short Treatise on the Stages of the Path"; also called Lam rim 'bring ba ("Intermediate Treatise on the Stages of the Path"); the middle-length of three major treatises on LAM RIM, or stages of the path, composed by the renowned Tibetan luminary TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA. It is about half the size of the author's classic LAM RIM CHEN MO ("Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path"), and also less formal. He wrote this work in 1415, some thirteen years after Lam rim chen mo. Although the first sections of the text are largely a summary of what appears in Lam rim chen mo, the section on insight (VIPAsYANĀ) is substantially different from what appears in Tsong kha pa's earlier and longer work, changing the order of the presentation and adding dozens of quotations from Indian works that he did not use in Lam rim chen mo. Perhaps the most important contribution of this later work is its discussion of the two truths (SATYADVAYA) found in the vipasyanā section.

latency "communications" 1. The time it takes for a {packet} to cross a network connection, from sender to receiver. 2. The period of time that a frame is held by a network device before it is forwarded. Two of the most important parameters of a communications channel are its latency, which should be low, and its {bandwidth}, which should be high. Latency is particularly important for a {synchronous} {protocol} where each packet must be acknowledged before the next can be transmitted. (2000-02-27)

latency ::: (communications) 1. The time it takes for a packet to cross a network connection, from sender to receiver.2. The period of time that a frame is held by a network device before it is forwarded.Two of the most important parameters of a communications channel are its latency, which should be low, and its bandwidth, which should be high. Latency is particularly important for a synchronous protocol where each packet must be acknowledged before the next can be transmitted.(2000-02-27)

Legal Philosophy: Deals with the philosophic principles of law and justice. The origin is to be found in ancient philosophy. The Greek Sophists criticized existing laws and customs by questioning their validity: All human rules are artificial, created by enactment or convention, as opposed to natural law, based on nature. The theory of a law of nature was further developed by Aristotle and the Stoics. According to the Stoics the natural law is based upon the eternal law of the universe; this itself is an outgrowth of universal reason, as man's mind is an offshoot of the latter. The idea of a law of nature as being innate in man was particularly stressed and popularized by Cicero who identified it with "right reason" and already contrasted it with written law that might be unjust or even tyrannical. Through Saint Augustine these ideas were transmitted to medieval philosophy and by Thomas Aquinas built into his philosophical system. Thomas considers the eternal law the reason existing in the divine mind and controlling the universe. Natural law, innate in man participates in that eternal law. A new impetus was given to Legal Philosophy by the Renaissance. Natural Jurisprudence, properly so-called, originated in the XVII. century. Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Benedictus Spinoza, John Locke, Samuel Pufendorf were the most important representatives of that line of thought. Grotius, continuing the Scholastic tradition, particularly stressed the absoluteness of natural hw (it would exist even if God did not exist) and, following Jean Bodin, the sovereignty of the people. The idea of the social contract traced all political bodies back to a voluntary compact by which every individual gave up his right to self-government, or rather transferred it to the government, abandoning a state of nature which according to Hobbes must have been a state of perpetual war. The theory of the social compact more and more accepts the character of a "fiction" or of a regulative idea (Kant). In this sense the theory means that we ought to judge acts of government by their correspondence to the general will (Rousseau) and to the interests of the individuals who by transferring their rights to the commonwealth intended to establish their real liberty. Natural law by putting the emphasis on natural rights, takes on a revolutionary character. It played a part in shaping the bills of rights, the constitutions of the American colonies and of the Union, as well as of the French declaration of the rights of men and of citizens. Natural jurisprudence in the teachings of Christian Wolff and Thomasius undergoes a kind of petrification in the vain attempt to outline an elaborate system of natural law not only in the field of international or public law, but also in the detailed regulations of the law of property, of contract, etc. This sort of dogmatic approach towards the problems of law evoked the opposition of the Historic School (Gustav Hugo and Savigny) which stressed the natural growth of laws ind customs, originating from the mysterious "spirit of the people". On the other hand Immanuel Kant tried to overcome the old natural law by the idea of a "law of reason", meaning an a priori element in all existing or positive law. In his definition of law ("the ensemble of conditions according to which everyone's will may coexist with the will of every other in accordance with a general rule of liberty"), however, as in his legal philosophy in general, he still shares the attitude of the natural law doctrine, confusing positive law with the idea of just law. This is also true of Hegel whose panlogism seemed to lead in this very direction. Under the influence of epistemological positivism (Comte, Mill) in the later half of the nineteenth century, legal philosophy, especially in Germany, confined itself to a "general theory of law". Similarily John Austin in England considered philosophy of law concerned only with positive law, "as it necessarily is", not as it ought to be. Its main task was to analyze certain notions which pervade the science of law (Analytical Jurisprudence). In recent times the same tendency to reduce legal philosophy to logical or at least methodological tasks was further developed in attempting a pure science of law (Kelsen, Roguin). Owing to the influence of Darwinism and natural science in general the evolutionist and biological viewpoint was accepted in legal philosophy: comparative jurisprudence, sociology of law, the Freirecht movement in Germany, the study of the living law, "Realism" in American legal philosophy, all represent a tendency against rationalism. On the other hand there is a revival of older tendencies: Hegelianism, natural law -- especially in Catholic philosophy -- and Kantianism (beginning with Rudolf Stammler). From here other trends arose: the critical attitude leads to relativism (f.i. Gustav Radbruch); the antimetaphysical tendency towards positivism -- though different from epistemological positivism -- and to a pure theory of law. Different schools of recent philosophy have found their applications or repercussions in legal philosophy: Phenomenology, for example, tried to intuit the essences of legal institutions, thus coming back to a formalist position, not too far from the real meaning of analytical jurisprudence. Neo-positivism, though so far not yet explicitly applied to legal philosophy, seems to lead in the same direction. -- W.E.

LIFE BETWEEN INCARNATIONS, HUMAN When the individual leaves his worn-out organism with its etheric envelope, he goes on living in his emotional envelope and, when this is dissolved, in his mental envelope, and when this too is dissolved, he waits, asleep in his causal envelope, to be reborn into the physical world which is incomparably the most important, since it is in this world that all human qualities must be acquired, and it is only in this world that he has the possibility of freeing himself from emotional illusions and mental fictions. Life between incarnations is a period of rest in which man does not learn anything new. The more quickly the self can free itself from its incarnation envelopes, the more quickly it develops. K 1.34.25

Luang Prabang. Ancient royal capital of the kingdom of Laos and one of the major historical centers of Laotian Buddhism. Originally named Muang Sua, the region was a frequent locus of political contestation and was periodically under the suzerainty of the Nanzhao kingdom in southern China, the Chams from Vietnam, the Khmer kingdom in Cambodia, and the Thais. In 1353, the city became the initial capital of the Lao Lan Xang kingdom (1353-1707) and after the demise of that state became the center of an independent Luang Prabang kingdom. After the French annexed Laos, Luang Prabang continued to be maintained as the royal residence. The city is a collection of districts, each of which is built around a central monastery. The city includes thirty-three major Buddhist monasteries (wat), which are built in a distinctive style, with tiered roofs, pillared porticos, and embellished from top to bottom with exceedingly elaborate ornamentation. One of the most important of the monasteries is Wat Xieng Thong, which was constructed in 1560 on the northern peninsula of the city and includes a rare image of a reclining buddha that is said to date from the monastery's founding. Luang Prabang was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 and has emerged as a major center of Buddhist tourism in Southeast Asia.

lurianickabbalah ::: Lurianic Kabbalah In the 16th century Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534 1572), a Jewish scholar and mystic, founded one of the most important branches of Kabbalah, often referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah. In this branch of Kabbalah, the purpose of man is to restore the original harmony in the universe that was destroyed with the breaking of the Vessels (also known as the 'Fall').

Lycomidae (Greek) A family living in ancient Athens, hereditary torch-bearers in the Eleusinian Mysteries. The members of this family formed with the Eumolpidae, likewise hereditary officials, two of the most important functionaries in the celebration of these archaic rites. The torchbearers with the hierophants (Eumolpidae) had to be men of proved and known integrity and of spotless life, until the Mysteries degenerated in later times.

Madhyāntavibhāga. (T. Dbus mtha' rnam 'byed; C. Bianzhongbian lun; J. Benchubenron; K. Pyonjungbyon non 辯中邊論). In Sanskrit, "Differentiation of the Middle Way and the Extremes"; one of the five works (together with the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA, the MAHĀYĀNASuTRĀLAMKĀRA, the RATNAGOTRAVIBHĀGA, and the DHARMADHARMATĀVIBHĀGA) said to have been presented to ASAnGA by the bodhisattva MAITREYA in the TUsITA heaven. (More precisely, the title Madhyāntavibhāga refers to the Madhyāntavibhāgakārikā attributed to Maitreya; VASUBANDHU. wrote a commentary to the text, entitled Madhyāntavibhāgabhāsya, and STHIRAMATI wrote a commentary entitled Madhyāntavibhāgatīkā). Written in verse, it is one of the most important YOGĀCĀRA delineations of the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA), especially as they figure in the path to enlightenment, where the obstacles created by the imaginary (PARIKALPITA) are overcome ultimately by the antidote of the consummate (PARINIsPANNA). The "middle way" exposed here is that of the Yogācāra, and is different from that of NĀGĀRJUNA, although the names of the two extremes to be avoided-the extreme of permanence (sĀsVATĀNTA) and the extreme of annihilation (UCCHEDĀNTA)-are the same. Here the extreme of permanence is the existence of external objects, the imaginary nature (PARIKALPITASVABHĀVA). The extreme of annihilation would seem to include Nāgārjuna's emptiness of intrinsic nature (SVABHĀVA). The middle way entails upholding the existence of consciousness (VIJNĀNA) as the dependent nature (PARATANTRASVABHĀVA) and the existence of the consummate nature (PARINIsPANNASVABHĀVA). The work is divided into five chapters, which consider the three natures, the various forms of obstruction to be abandoned on the path, the ultimate truth according to YOGĀCĀRA, the means of cultivating the antidotes to the defilements, and the activity of the MAHĀYĀNA path. See also MAITREYANĀTHA.

Mahābodhi Temple. (T. Byang chub chen po; C. Daputisi; J. Daibodaiji; K. Taeborisa 大菩提寺). The "Temple of the Great Awakening"; proper name used to refer to the great STuPA at BODHGAYĀ, marking the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, and hence the most important place of pilgrimage (see MAHĀSTHĀNA) in the Buddhist world. The Emperor AsOKA erected a pillar and shrine at the site in the third century BCE. A more elaborate structure, called the VAJRĀSANA GANDHAKUtĪ ("perfumed chamber of the diamond seat"), is depicted in a relief at Bodhgayā, dating from c. 100 BCE. It shows a two-storied structure supported by pillars, enclosing the BODHI TREE and the vajrāsana, the "diamond seat," where the Buddha sat on the night of his enlightenment. The forerunner of the present structure is described by the Chinese pilgrim XUANZANG. This has led scholars to speculate that the temple was built between the third and sixth centuries CE, with subsequent renovations. Despite various persecutions by Hindu kings, the site continued to receive patronage, especially during the Pāla period, from which many of the surrounding monuments date. The monastery fell into neglect after the Muslim invasions that began in the thirteenth century. British photographs from the nineteenth century show the monastery in ruins. Restoration of the site was ordered by the British governor-general of Bengal in 1880, with a small eleventh-century replica of the monastery serving as a model. There is a tall central tower some 165 feet (fifty meters) in height, with a high arch over the entrance with smaller towers at the four corners. The central tower houses a small shrine with an image of the Buddha. The structure is surrounded by stone railings, some dating from 150 BCE, others from the Gupta period (300-600 CE), which preserve important carvings. The area came under the control of a saiva mahant in the eighteenth century. In the late nineteenth century, the Sinhalese Buddhist activist Anagārika Dharmapāla (see DHARMAPĀLA, ANAGĀRIKA), was part of a group that founded the MAHĀBODHI SOCIETY and began an unsuccessful legal campaign to have control of the site returned to Buddhists. In 1949, after Indian independence, the Bodhgayā Temple Act was passed, which is established a joint committee of four Buddhists and four Hindus to oversee the monastery and its grounds.

Mahākāla. (T. Nag po chen po; C. Daheitian; J. Daikokuten; K. Taehŭkch'on 大黑天). In Sanskrit, the "Great Black One"; one of the most important wrathful deities of tantric Buddhism. He is a DHARMAPĀLA or "protector of the dharma," of the LOKOTTARA or "supramundane" variety; that is, one regarded as the manifestation of a buddha or bodhisattva. He is said to be the wrathful manifestation of AVALOKITEsVARA, the bodhisattva of compassion. In the form of Avalokitesvara with a thousand arms and eleven heads (see SĀHASRABHUJASĀHASRANETRĀVALOKITEsVARA), the top head is that of Mahākāla. He has many aspects, including two-, four-, and six-armed forms, and appears in several colors, the most famous being black and white. He wears a crown of five skulls, symbolizing the transmutation of the five afflictions (KLEsA) into the five wisdoms (PANCAJNĀNA) of a buddha. One of his most popular forms in Tibet is as PaNjaranātha or "Protector of the Pavilion." In this form, which derives from the VajrapaNjaratantra, he is the protector of the HEVAJRATANTRA cycle. Here is depicted as a dwarf-like figure, holding a wooden staff across his arms. In Japan, where he is known as Daikokuten, Mahākāla is a less frightening figure and is one of the "seven gods of good fortune" (SHICHIFUKUJIN), extolled as a god of wealth and a god of the household.

MahāvairocanābhisaMbodhisutra. (T. Rnam par snang mdzad chen po mngon par rdzogs par byang chub pa rnam par sprul ba byin gyis rlob pa shin tu rgyas pa mdo; C. Da piluzhena chengfo shenbian jiachi jing/Dari jing; J. Daibirushana jobutsu jinben kajikyo/Dainichikyo; K. Tae Pirojana songbul sinbyon kaji kyong /Taeil kyong 大毘盧遮那成佛神 變加持經/大日經). In Sanskrit, "The Discourse on the Enlightenment of Mahāvairocanā"; a scripture also known as the Mahāvairocanasutra and the VairocanābhisaMbodhitantra; the full title of the work is MahāvairocanābhisaMbodhivikurvitādhisthānavaipulyasutra ("Extensive Sutra on the Enlightenment, Transformations, and Empowerment of MAHĀVAIROCANĀ"). This scripture is an early Buddhist TANTRA, which was probably composed sometime between the mid-sixth and seventh centuries, around the time that the MANTRAYĀNA was emerging as distinct strand of MAHĀYĀNA Buddhism; the text is later classified as both a YOGATANTRA and a CARYĀTANTRA. It was first translated into Chinese by sUBHAKARASIMHA and YIXING in 724-725, and would become one of the two most important tantras for East Asian esoteric Buddhism (the other being the SARVATATHĀGATATATTVASAMGRAHA). The text was translated into Tibetan in the early ninth century; the Tibetan version contains an additional seven chapters, called the "continuation" (uttaratantra), that do not appear in the Chinese version. Among the commentaries to the text, the most important is that of BUDDHAGUYHA and that of the Chinese translators, subhakarasiMha and Yixing. The tantra is set forth as a dialogue between VAJRAPĀnI and the buddha Mahāvairocanā. The central topics of the text are BODHICITTA, KARUnĀ, and UPĀYA, which the buddha VAIROCANA explains are respectively the cause, root, and culmination of his own omniscience. Much of the text deals with the traditional tantric topics of initiation (ABHIsEKA), MANTRA recitation, MUDRĀ, visualization, and the description of the MAndALA.

MahāyānasutrālaMkāra. [alt. SutrālaMkāra] (T. Theg pa chen po'i mdo sde'i rgyan; C. Dasheng zhuangyan jing lun; J. Daijo shogongyoron; K. Taesŭng changomgyong non 大乘莊嚴經論). In Sanskrit, the "Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sutras"; one of the five works (together with the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA, the RATNAGOTRAVIBHĀGA, the MADHYĀNTAVIBHĀGA, and the DHARMADHARMATĀVIBHĀGA) said to have been presented to ASAnGA by the bodhisattva MAITREYA in the TUsITA heaven (see also MAITREYANĀTHA). Written in verse, the text offers a systematic presentation of the practices of the bodhisattva from the standpoint of the YOGĀCĀRA school and is one of the most important of the Indian Mahāyāna sĀSTRAs. Its twenty-one chapters deal with (1) the proof that the MAHĀYĀNA sutras are the word of the Buddha; (2) taking refuge in the three jewels (RATNATRAYA); (3) the lineage (GOTRA) of enlightenment necessary to undertake the bodhisattva path; (4) the generation of the aspiration to enlightenment (BODHICITTOTPĀDA); (5) the practice of the BODHISATTVA; (6) the nature of reality, described from the Yogācāra perspective; (7) the attainment of power by the bodhisattva; (8) the methods of bringing oneself and others to maturation; (9) enlightenment and the three bodies of a buddha (TRIKĀYA); (10) faith in the Mahāyāna; (11) seeking complete knowledge of the dharma; (12) teaching the dharma; (13) practicing in accordance with the dharma; (14) the precepts and instructions received by the bodhisattva; (15) the skillful methods of the bodhisattva; (16) the six perfections (PĀRAMITĀ) and the four means of conversion (SAMGRAHAVASTU), through which bodhisattvas attract and retain disciples; (17) the worship of the Buddha; (18) the constituents of enlightenment (BODHIPĀKsIKADHARMA); (19) the qualities of the bodhisattva; and (20-21) the consummation of the bodhisattva path and the attainment of buddhahood. There is a commentary (BHĀsYA) by VASUBANDHU and a subcommentary by STHIRAMATI.

Mahāyāna. (T. theg pa chen po; C. dasheng; J. daijo; K. taesŭng 大乘). In Sanskrit, "great vehicle"; a term, originally of self-appellation, which is used historically to refer to a movement that began some four centuries after the Buddha's death, marked by the composition of texts that purported to be his words (BUDDHAVACANA). Although ranging widely in content, these texts generally set forth the bodhisattva path to buddhahood as the ideal to which all should aspire and described BODHISATTVAs and buddhas as objects of devotion. The key doctrines of the Mahāyāna include the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ), the skillful methods (UPĀYAKAUsALYA) of a buddha, the three bodies (TRIKĀYA) of a buddha, the inherency of buddha-nature (BUDDHADHĀTU; TATHĀGATAGARBHA), and PURE LANDs or buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA). The term Mahāyāna is also appended to two of the leading schools of Indian Buddhism, the YOGĀCĀRA and the MADHYAMAKA, because they accepted the Mahāyāna sutras as the word of the Buddha. However, the tenets of these schools were not restricted to expositions of the philosophy and practice of the bodhisattva but sought to set forth the nature of wisdom and the constituents of the path for the ARHAT as well. The term Mahāyāna often appears in contrast to HĪNAYĀNA, the "lesser vehicle," a pejorative term used to refer to those who do not accept the Mahāyāna sutras as the word of the Buddha. Mahāyāna became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and Mongolia, and therefore is sometimes referred to as "Northern Buddhism," especially in nineteenth-century sources. Because of the predominance of the Mahāyāna in East Asia and Tibet, it is sometimes assumed that the Mahāyāna displaced earlier forms of Buddhism (sometimes referred to by scholars as "Nikāya Buddhism" or "MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS") in India, but the testimony of Chinese pilgrims, such as XUANZANG and YIJING, suggests that the Mahāyāna remained a minority movement in India. These pilgrims report that Mahāyāna and "hīnayāna" monks lived together in the same monasteries and followed the same VINAYA. The supremacy of the Mahāyāna is also sometimes assumed because of the large corpus of Mahāyāna literature in India. However, scholars have begun to speculate that the size of this corpus may not be a sign of the Mahāyāna's dominance but rather of its secondary status, with more and more works composed but few gaining adherents. Scholars find it significant that the first mention of the term "Mahāyāna" in a stone inscription does not appear in India until some five centuries after the first Mahāyāna sutras were presumably composed, perhaps reflecting its minority, or even marginal, status on the Indian subcontinent. The origins of the Mahāyāna remain the subject of scholarly debate. Earlier theories that saw the Mahāyāna as largely a lay movement against entrenched conservative monastics have given way to views of the Mahāyāna as beginning as disconnected cults (of monastic and sometimes lay members) centered around an individual sutra, in some instances proclaimed by charismatic teachers called DHARMABHĀnAKA. The teachings contained in these sutras varied widely, with some extolling a particular buddha or bodhisattva above all others, some saying that the text itself functioned as a STuPA. Each of these sutras sought to represent itself as the authentic word of sĀKYAMUNI Buddha, which was more or less independent from other sutras; hence, the trope in so many Mahāyāna sutras in which the Buddha proclaims the supremacy of that particular text and describes the benefits that will accrue to those who recite, copy, and worship it. The late appearance of these texts had to be accounted for, and various arguments were set forth, most making some appeal to UPĀYA, the Buddha's skillful methods whereby he teaches what is most appropriate for a given person or audience. Thus, in the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra"), the Buddha famously proclaims that the three vehicles (TRIYĀNA) that he had previously set forth were in fact expedient stratagems to reach different audiences and that there is in fact only one vehicle (EKAYĀNA), revealed in the Saddharmapundarīkasutra, the BUDDHAYĀNA, which had been taught many times in the past by previous buddhas. These early Mahāyāna sutras seem to have been deemed complete unto themselves, each representing its own world. This relatively disconnected assemblage of various cults of the book would eventually become a self-conscious scholastic entity that thought of itself as the Mahāyāna; this exegetical endeavor devoted a good deal of energy to surveying what was by then a large corpus of such books and then attempting to craft the myriad doctrines contained therein into coherent philosophical and religious systems, such as Yogācāra and Madhyamaka. The authority of the Mahāyāna sutras as the word of the Buddha seems to have remained a sensitive issue throughout the history of the Mahāyāna in India, since many of the most important authors, from the second to the twelfth century, often offered a defense of these sutras' authenticity. Another influential strand of early Mahāyāna was that associated with the RĀstRAPĀLAPARIPṚCCHĀ, KĀsYAPAPARIVARTA, and UGRAPARIPṚCCHĀ, which viewed the large urban monasteries as being ill-suited to serious spiritual cultivation and instead advocated forest dwelling (see ARANNAVĀSI) away from the cities, following a rigorous asceticism (S. dhutaguna; P. DHUTAnGA) that was thought to characterize the early SAMGHA. This conscious estrangement from the monks of the city, where the great majority of monks would have resided, again suggests the Mahāyāna's minority status in India. Although one often reads in Western sources of the three vehicles of Buddhism-the hīnayāna, Mahāyāna, and VAJRAYĀNA-the distinction of the Mahāyāna from the vajrayāna is less clear, at least polemically speaking, than the distinction between the Mahāyāna and the hīnayāna, with followers of the vajrayāna considering themselves as following the path to buddhahood set forth in the Mahāyāna sutras, although via a shorter route. Thus, in some expositions, the Mahāyāna is said to subsume two vehicles, the PĀRAMITĀYĀNA, that is, the path to buddhahood by following the six perfections (PĀRAMITĀ) as set forth in the Mahāyāna sutras, and the MANTRAYĀNA or vajrayāna, that is, the path to buddhahood set forth in the tantras.

malleusmaleficarum ::: Malleus Maleficarum Translated as The Witches Hammer, this is one of the most important late medieval theological texts against witchcraft. It was written by two Dominican friars, Jakob Sprenger (1436-1495) and Heinrich Kramer (1430-1505), and filled with detailed descriptions and definitions, as a result of which it quickly became the most authoritative study of witchcraft and the methods of detecting it. Thus it became the handbook for witchfinders, and served as a guide to the Holy Inquisition for more than a century.

mārga. (P. magga; T. lam; C. dao; J. do; K. to 道). In Sanskrit, "path"; a polysemous term in Sanskrit, whose root denotation is a road, track, way, or course. As one of the most important terms in Buddhism, it refers to the metaphorical route from one state to another, typically from suffering to liberation, from SAMSĀRA to NIRVĀnA. The term derives in part from the view that the means of achieving liberation from suffering have been identified by the Buddha, and he himself has successfully followed the route to that goal, leaving behind tracks or footprints that others can follow. Indeed, it is the Buddhist view that each of the buddhas of the past has followed the same path to enlightenment. However, in the interval between buddhas, that path becomes forgotten, and the purpose of the next buddha's advent in the world is to rediscover and reopen that same path. The term mārga occurs in the Buddha's first sermon (S. DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANASuTRA; P. DHAMMACAKKAPPAVATTANASUTTA) as the fourth constituent of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVĀRY ĀRYASATYĀNI), where it is identified as the eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA) between the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. Elsewhere, the path is associated with the threefold training (TRIsIKsĀ) in morality (sĪLA), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom (PRAJNĀ). However, there are numerous delineations of the path to enlightenment. For example, both the mainstream Buddhist schools and the MAHĀYĀNA describe three paths: (1) the path of the sRĀVAKA, culminating in attainment of NIRVĀnA as an ARHAT; (2) the path of the PRATYEKABUDDHA, also culminating in the nirvāna of an arhat; and (3) the path of the BODHISATTVA, culminating in the attainment of buddhahood. Each of these paths has its own stages, with a common system describing five (PANCAMĀRGA): (1) the path of accumulation (SAMBHĀRAMĀRGA), (2) the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA), (3) the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA), (4) the path of cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA), and (5) the adept path, "where there is nothing more to learn" (AsAIKsAMĀRGA). In more technical descriptions, the path to enlightenment is described as a series of moments of consciousness in a process of purification, in which increasingly subtle states of contaminants (ĀSRAVA) and afflictions (KLEsA) are permanently cleansed from the mind. The term "path" figures in the title of a number of highly important Buddhist works, such as the VISUDDHIMAGGA ("Path of Purification") by the Pāli commentator BUDDHAGHOSA. The Tibetan exegete TSONG KHA PA wrote of the "three principal aspects of the path" (lam rtso rnam gsum): renunciation, BODHICITTA, and correct view. See also DAO.

mijiao. (J. mikkyo; K. milgyo 密教). In Chinese, "esoteric teachings"; a term used to describe a large body of literature and practices that included both MAHĀYĀNA rituals introduced from India and Central Asia into China beginning in the third and fourth centuries CE, as well as more specifically "tantric" teachings translated into Chinese in the eighth century. Rather than representing a specific independent school, mijiao refers more generically to a range of esoteric practices (including the recitation of MANTRAs and the creation of MAndALAs), which came to be adopted by many of the Buddhist traditions of China. A more systematic form of mijiao appeared in the zhenyan zong (see SHINGONSHu), which flourished during the Tang dynasty, declining in influence after the Huichang persecution (see HUICHANG FANAN) of 842-845. Its adherents included the foreign masters sUBHAKARASIMHA, VAJRABODHI, and AMOGHAVAJRA, each of whom held influential positions at court during the Tang, where the image of the divine king, as well as rituals to protect the state (HUGUO FOJIAO), found favor. Among the most important texts for mijiao were the MAHĀVAIROCANĀBHISAMBODHISuTRA and the SARVATATHĀGATATATTVASAMGRAHA. See also MIKKYo.

Morals, Morality ::: What is the basis of morals? This is the most important question that can be asked of any system ofthought. Is morality based on the dicta of man? Is morality based on the conviction in most men's heartsthat for human safety it is necessary to have certain abstract rules which it is merely convenient tofollow? Are we mere opportunists? Or is morality, ethics, based on truth, which it is not merelyexpedient for man to follow, but necessary? Surely upon the latter! Morals is right conduct based uponright views, right thinking.In the third fundamental postulate of The Secret Doctrine [1:17] we find the very elements, the veryfundamentals, of a system of morality greater than which, profounder than which, more persuasive thanwhich, perhaps, it would be impossible to imagine anything.On what, then, is morality based? And by morality is not meant merely the opinion which somepseudo-philosophers have, that morality is more or less that which is "good for the community," based onthe mere meaning of the Latin word mores, "good customs," as opposed to bad. No! Morality is thatinstinctive hunger of the human heart to do righteousness, to do good to every man because it is good andsatisfying and ennobling to do so.When man realizes that he is one with all that is, inwards and outwards, high and low; that he is one withall, not merely as members of a community are one, not merely as individuals of an army are one, butlike the molecules of our own flesh, like the atoms of the molecule, like the electrons of the atom,composing one unity -- not a mere union but a spiritual unity -- then he sees truth. (See also Ethics)

Mulamadhyamakakārikā. (T. Dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'u byas pa; C. Zhong lun; J. Churon; K. Chung non 中論). In Sanskrit, "Root Verses on the Middle Way"; the magnum opus of the second-century Indian master NĀGĀRJUNA; also known as the PrajNānāmamulamadhyamakakārikā and the Madhyamakasāstra. (The Chinese analogue of this text is the Zhong lun, which renders the title as MADHYAMAKAsĀSTRA. This Chinese version was edited and translated by KUMĀRAJĪVA. Kumārajīva's edition, however, includes not only Nāgārjuna's verses but also Pingala's commentary to the verses.) The most widely cited and commented upon of Nāgārjuna's works in India, the Mulamadhyamakakārikā, was the subject of detailed commentaries by such figures as BUDDHAPĀLITA, BHĀVAVIVEKA, and CANDRAKĪRTI (with Candrakīrti's critique of Bhāvaviveka's criticism of a passage in Buddhapālita's commentary providing the locus classicus for the later Tibetan division of MADHYAMAKA into *SVĀTANTRIKA and *PRĀSAnGIKA). In East Asia, it was one of the three basic texts of the "Three Treatises" school (C. SAN LUN ZONG), and was central to TIANTAI philosophy. Although lost in the original Sanskrit as an independent work, the entire work is preserved within the Sanskrit text of Candrakīrti's commentary, the PRASANNAPADĀ (serving as one reason for the influence of Candrakīrti's commentary in the European reception of the Mulamadhyamakakārikā). The work is composed of 448 verses in twenty-seven chapters. The topics of the chapters (as provided by Candrakīrti) are the analysis of: (1) conditions (PRATYAYA), (2) motion, (3) the eye and the other sense faculties (INDRIYA), (4) aggregates (SKANDHA), (5) elements (DHĀTU), (6) passion and the passionate, (7) the conditioned (in the sense of production, abiding, disintegration), (8) action and agent, (9) prior existence, (10) fire and fuel, (11) the past and future limits of SAMSĀRA, (12) suffering, (13) the conditioned (SAMSKĀRA), (14) contact (saMsarga), (15) intrinsic nature (SVABHĀVA), (16) bondage and liberation, (17) action and effect, (18) self, (19) time, (20) assemblage (sāmagrī), (21) arising and dissolving, (22) the TATHĀGATA, (23) error, (24) the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, (25) NIRVĀnA, (26), the twelve links of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA), and (27) views. The tone of the work is set in its famous homage to the Buddha, which opens the work, "I bow down to the perfect Buddha, the best of teachers, who taught that what is dependently arisen is without cessation, without production, without annihilation, without permanence, without coming, without going, without difference, without sameness, pacified of elaboration, at peace." The Mulamadhyamakakārikā offers a relentless examination of many of the most important categories of Buddhist thought, subjecting them to an analysis that reveals the absurd consequences that follow from imagining any of them to be real in the sense of possessing an independent and intrinsic nature (SVABHĀVA). Nāgārjuna demonstrates repeatedly that these various categories only exist relationally and only function heuristically in a worldly and transactional sense; they do not exist ultimately. Thus, in the first chapter, Nāgārjuna examines production via causes and conditions, one of the hallmarks of Buddhist thought, and declares that a thing is not produced from itself, from something other than itself, from something that is both itself and other, or from something that is neither itself nor the other. He examines the four kinds of conditions, declaring each to lack an intrinsic nature, such that they do not exist because they do not produce anything. In the second chapter, Nāgārjuna examines motion, seeking to determine precisely where motion occurs: on the path already traversed, the path being traversed, or on the path not yet traversed. He concludes that motion is not to be found on any of these three. In the twenty-fifth chapter, he subjects nirvāna to a similar analysis, finding it to be neither existent, nonexistent, both existent and nonexistent, nor neither existent nor nonexistent. (These are the famous CATUsKOtI, the "four alternatives," or tetralemma.) Therefore, nirvāna, like saMsāra and all worldly phenomena, is empty of intrinsic nature, leading Nāgārjuna to declare (at XXV.19), in one of his most famous and widely misinterpreted statements, that there is not the slightest difference between saMsāra and nirvāna. The thoroughgoing negative critique or apophasis in which Nāgārjuna engages leads to charges of nihilism, charges that he faces directly in the text, especially in the twenty-fourth chapter on the four noble truths where he introduces the topic of the two truths (SATYADVAYA)-ultimate truth (PARAMĀRTHASATYA) and conventional truth (SAMVṚTISATYA)-declaring the importance of both in understanding correctly the doctrine of the Buddha. Also in this chapter, he discusses the danger of misunderstanding emptiness (suNYATĀ), and the relation between emptiness and dependent origination ("That which is dependent origination we explain as emptiness. This is a dependent designation; just this is the middle path"). To those who would object that emptiness renders causation and change impossible, he counters that if things existed independently and intrinsically, there could be no transformation; "for whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible." There has been considerable scholarly discussion of Nāgārjuna's target audience for this work, with the consensus being that it is intended for Buddhist monks well versed in ABHIDHARMA literature, especially that associated with the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school; many of the categories to which Nāgārjuna subjects his critique are derived from this school. In the Sarvāstivāda abhidharma, these categories and factors (DHARMA) are posited to be endowed with a certain reality, a reality that Nāgārjuna sees as implying permanence, independence, and autonomy. He seeks to reveal the absurd consequences and hence the impossibility of the substantial existence of these categories and factors. Through his critique, he seeks a new understanding of these fundamental tenets of Buddhist philosophy in light of the doctrine of emptiness as set forth in the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ SuTRAs. He does not cite these sutras directly, however, nor does he mention the MAHĀYĀNA, which he extols regularly in other of his works. Instead, he seeks to demonstrate how the central Buddhist doctrine of causation, expressed as dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda), necessarily entails emptiness (sunyatā). The understanding of emptiness is essential in order to abandon false views (MITHYĀDṚstI). Nāgārjuna therefore sees his purpose not to reject the standard categories of Buddhist thought but to reinterpret them in such a way that they become conduits for, rather than impediments to, liberation from suffering, in keeping with the Buddha's intent.

Mulamantra: Root Mantra; the powerful and the most important of the Mantras of any deity.

Nāgārjunakondā. "Nāgārjuna's hill" (kondā means "hill" in Telugu), an important archaeological site in southern India, in the modern state of Andhra Pradesh; it is the present name for Vijayapurī, the capital of the Iksvāku dynasty (c. 227-309) founded by Vāsistīputra CaMtamula after the decline of AMARĀVATĪ, the southern capital of the later Sātavāhana [alt. sātavāhana] dynasty. In 1926, ruins were discovered of what was the most important monastic center in the Deccan. There is no archaeological evidence to support its traditional association with the philosopher NĀGĀRJUNA, although there are remains of Buddhist monasteries and reliquaries of at least four Buddhist schools. Each monastic unit consisted of a STuPA, two CAITYA halls (one containing a stupa, the other an image of the buddha), and a VIHĀRA (residential quarters). The stupas at the site are designed in the shape of a wheel. Limestone panels and friezes have also been discovered at the site. Nāgārjunakondā and AMARĀVATĪ are particularly important for showing how Buddhist and Brahmanical structures were constructed at the same time, alongside each other, supported by different members of the same ruling families.

namu Amidabutsu. (C. namo Amituo fo; K. namu Amit'a pul 南無阿彌陀佛). In Japanese, "I take refuge in the buddha AMITĀBHA." Chanting of the name of the buddha Amitābha as a form of "buddha-recollection" (J. nenbutsu; see C. NIANFO) is often associated with the PURE LAND traditions. In Japan, nenbutsu practice was spread throughout the country largely through the efforts of itinerant holy men (HIJIRI), such as KuYA and IPPEN. With the publication of GENSHIN's oJo YoSHu, the practice of nenbutsu and the prospect of rebirth in Amitābha's pure land came to play an integral role as well in the TENDAI tradition. HoNEN, a learned monk of the Tendai sect, inspired in part by reading the writings of the Chinese exegete SHANDAO, became convinced that the nenbutsu was the most appropriate form of Buddhist practice for people in the degenerate age of the dharma (J. mappo; C. MOFA). Honen set forth his views in a work called Senchaku hongan nenbutsushu ("On the Nenbutsu Selected in the Primal Vow," see SENCHAKUSHu). The title refers to the vow made eons ago by the bodhisattva DHARMĀKARA that he would become the buddha Amitābha, create the pure land of bliss (SUKHĀVATĪ), and deliver to that realm anyone who called his name. To illustrate the power of the practice of nenbutsu, Honen contrasted "right practice" and the "practice of sundry good acts." "Right practice" refers to all forms of worship of Amitābha, the most important of which is the recitation of his name. "Practice of sundry good acts" refers to ordinary virtuous deeds performed by Buddhists, which are meritorious but lack the power of "right practice" that derives from the grace of Amitābha. Indeed, the power of Amitābha's vow is so great that those who sincerely recite his name, Honen suggests, do not necessarily need to dedicate their merit toward rebirth in the land of bliss because recitation will naturally result in rebirth there. Honen goes on to explain that each bodhisattva makes specific vows about the particular practice that will result in rebirth in their buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA). Some buddha-fields are for those who practice charity (DĀNA), others for those who construct STuPAs, and others for those who honor their teachers. While Amitābha was still the bodhisattva Dharmākara, he compassionately selected a very simple practice that would lead to rebirth in his pure land of bliss: the mere recitation of his name. Honen recognized how controversial these teachings would be if they were widely espoused, so he instructed that the Senchakushu not be published until after his death and allowed only his closest disciples to read and copy it. His teachings gained popularity in a number of influential circles but were considered anathema by the existing sects of Buddhism in Japan because of his promotion of the sole practice of reciting the name. His critics charged him with denigrating sĀKYAMUNI Buddha, with neglecting virtuous deeds other than the recitation of the name, and with abandoning the meditation and visualization practices that should accompany the chanting of the name. Some years after Honen's death, the printing xylographs of the Senchakushu were confiscated and burned as works harmful to the dharma. However, by that time, the teachings of Honen had gained a wide following among both aristocrats and the common people. Honen's disciple SHINRAN came to hold even more radical views. Like Honen, he believed that any attempt to rely on one's own powers (JIRIKI) to achieve freedom from SAMSĀRA was futile; the only viable course of action was to rely on the power of Amitābha. But for Shinran, this power was pervasive. Even to make the effort to repeat silently "namu Amidabutsu" was a futile act of hubris. The very presence of the sounds of Amitābha's name in one's heart was due to Amitābha's compassionate grace. It was therefore redundant to repeat the name more than once in one's life. Instead, a single utterance (ICHINENGI) would assure rebirth in the pure land; all subsequent recitation should be regarded as a form of thanksgiving. This utterance need be neither audible nor even voluntary; instead, it is heard in the heart as a consequence of the "single thought-moment" of faith (shinjin, see XINXIN), received through Amitābha's grace. Shinran not only rejected the value of multiple recitations of the phrase namu Amidabutsu; he also regarded the deathbed practices advocated by Genshin to bring about rebirth in the pure land as inferior self-power (jiriki). Despite harsh persecution by rival Buddhist traditions and the government, the followers of Honen and Shinran came to form the largest Buddhist community in Japan, known as the JoDOSHu and JoDO SHINSHu.

Nanatsudera. (七寺). Japanese vernacular name of the monastery of Toenzan Chofukuji in downtown Nagoya; famous as the repository of a massive twelfth-century manuscript canon of East Asian Buddhist works that was designated an Important Cultural Property after World War II. The monastery, which is affiliated with the SHINGONSHu, was founded by GYoGI in 735 and was originally named Shogakuin. The monastery was destroyed in an air raid in March 1945, but its canon survived, stored in lacquered chests called karabitsu. In 1990, scholarly investigation of the 4,954 juan (3,398 in rolls, 1,556 in folded books) of Nantsudera's canon identified scores of juan of scriptures that were long believed to have been lost. Especially important were several previously unknown Chinese Buddhist APOCRYPHA, including seminal works of the proscribed SANJIE JIAO school. The Nanatsudera collection is considered by many scholars of East Asian Buddhism to be the most important discovery of Buddhist textual materials since the unearthing of the DUNHUANG cache in the early twentieth century.

netiquette ::: (convention, networking) /net'ee-ket/ or /net'i-ket/ Network etiquette.The conventions of politeness recognised on Usenet and in mailing lists, such as not (cross-)posting to inappropriate groups and refraining from commercial advertising outside the biz groups.The most important rule of netiquette is Think before you post. If what you intend to post will not make a positive contribution to the newsgroup and be of interest to several readers, don't post it! Personal messages to one or two individuals should not be posted to newsgroups, use private e-mail instead.When following up an article, quote the minimum necessary to give some context to your reply and be careful to attribute the quote to the right person. If the appropriate to your reply, especially if the original message was posted to one or more inappropriate groups in the first place.Re-read and edit your posting carefully before you post. Check the spelling and grammar. Keep your lines to less than 70 characters. Don't post test messages humorous or sarcastic comments, it is conventional to append a smiley, but don't overuse them.Before asking a question, read the messages already in the group and read the group's FAQ if it has one. When you do post a question, follow it with please summary by mail. This avoids umpteen people posting the same answer to the group and umpteen others posting me toos.If you believe someone has violated netiquette, send them a message by _private e-mail_, DO NOT post a follow-up to the news. And be polite, they may not responsible for the crime - their account may have been used by someone else or their address forged.Be proud of your postings but don't post just to see your name in pixels. Remember: your future employer may be reading. . .[Jargon File] (1999-10-18)

netiquette "convention, networking" /net'ee-ket/ or /net'i-ket/ Network etiquette. The conventions of politeness recognised on {Usenet} and in {mailing lists}, such as not (cross-)posting to inappropriate groups and refraining from commercial advertising outside the biz groups. The most important rule of netiquette is "Think before you post". If what you intend to post will not make a positive contribution to the newsgroup and be of interest to several readers, don't post it! Personal messages to one or two individuals should not be posted to newsgroups, use private e-mail instead. When following up an article, quote the minimum necessary to give some context to your reply and be careful to attribute the quote to the right person. If the article you are responding to was posted to several groups, edit the distribution ("Newsgroups:") header to contain only those groups which are appropriate to your reply, especially if the original message was posted to one or more inappropriate groups in the first place. Re-read and edit your posting carefully before you post. Check the spelling and grammar. Keep your lines to less than 70 characters. Don't post test messages (except to test groups) - wait until you have something to say. When posting humorous or sarcastic comments, it is conventional to append a {smiley}, but don't overuse them. Before asking a question, read the messages already in the group and read the group's {FAQ} if it has one. When you do post a question, follow it with "please reply by mail and I will post a summary if requested" and make sure you DO post a summary if requested, or if only a few people were interested, send them a summary by mail. This avoids umpteen people posting the same answer to the group and umpteen others posting "me too"s. If you believe someone has violated netiquette, send them a message by __private e-mail__, DO NOT post a follow-up to the news. And be polite, they may not realise their mistake, they might be a beginner or may not even have been responsible for the "crime" - their account may have been used by someone else or their address forged. Be proud of your postings but don't post just to see your name in pixels. Remember: your future employer may be reading. {Netiquette for Usenet Site Administrators (http://ancho.ucs.indiana.edu/FAQ/USAGN/index.html)}. {"net.acceptable" (http://marketing.tenagra.com/net-acceptable.html)}. [{Jargon File}] (1999-10-18)

Nuñez Regüeiro, Manuel: Born in Uruguay, March 21, 1883. Professor of Philosophy at the National University of the Litoral in Argentine. Author of about twenty-five books, among which the following are the most important from a philosophical point of view: Fundamentos de la Anterosofia, 1925; Anterosofia Racional, 1926; De Nuevo Hablo Jesus, 1928; Filosofia Integral, 1932; Del Conocimiento y Progreso de Si Mismo, 1934; Tratado de Metalogica, o Fundamentos de Una Nueva Metodologia, 1936; Suma Contra Una Nueva Edad Media, 1938; Metafisica y Ciencia, 1941; La Honda Inquietud, 1915; Conocimiento y Creencia, 1916. Three fundamental questions and a tenacious effort to answer them run throughout the entire thought of Nuñez Regüeiro, namely the three questions of Kant: What can I know? What must I do? What can I expect? Science as auch does not write finis to anything. We experience in science the same realm of contradictions and inconsistencies which we experience elsewhere. Fundamentally, this chaos is of the nature of dysteleology. At the root of the conflict lies a crisis of values. The problem of doing is above all a problem of valuing. From a point of view of values, life ennobles itself, man lifts himself above the trammels of matter, and the world becomes meaning-full. Is there a possibility for the realization of this ideal? Has this plan ever been tried out? History offers us a living example: The Fact of Jesus. He is the only possible expectation. In him and through him we come to fruition and fulfilment. Nuñez Regüeiro's philosophy is fundamentally religious. -- J.A.F.

Nyāyabindu. (T. Rigs pa'i thigs pa). In Sanskrit, "Drop of Reasoning," one of the seven treatises of the great seventh-century logician DHARMAKĪRTI. This text summarizes Dharmakīrti's positions on topics set forth at greater length in his most important work, the PRAMĀnAVĀRTTIKA, focusing upon the two forms of valid knowledge (PRAMĀnA): direct perception (PRATYAKsA) and inference (ANUMĀNA). The work is divided into three chapters, with the first chapter dealing with direct perception (pratyaksa), that is, valid knowledge gained through the sense consciousnesses (and the mental consciousness) without mediation by thought. The second chapter deals with "inference for one's own purposes" (SVĀRTHĀNUMĀNA), the process by which thought arrives at a valid judgment. The third chapter deals with "inference for the purpose of others" (PARĀRTHĀNUMĀNA), the statement of syllogisms to an opponent in a debate. Among the several commentaries to the text, the most important is that by DHARMOTTARA.

octane ::: n. --> Any one of a group of metametric hydrocarcons (C8H18) of the methane series. The most important is a colorless, volatile, inflammable liquid, found in petroleum, and a constituent of benzene or ligroin.

octoic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, octane; -- used specifically, to designate any one of a group of acids, the most important of which is called caprylic acid.

Oldenburg, Sergey. (1863-1934). Russian scholar of Buddhism, known especially as the founder of the Bibliotheca Buddhica, based in St. Petersburg. The series, published in thirty volumes between 1897 and 1936, was composed primarily of critical editions (and in some cases translations) by the leading European and Japanese scholars of some of the most important texts of Sanskrit Buddhism, including the sIKsĀSAMUCCAYA, MuLAMADHYAMAKAKĀRIKĀ, AVADĀNAsATAKA, and ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA. The series also included indexes as well as independent works, such as FYODOR IPPOLITOVICH STCHERBATSKY's Buddhist Logic. In the 1890s, Oldenburg published Sanskrit fragments discovered in Kashgar, and he led Russian expeditions to Central Asia in 1909-1910 and 1914-1915 in search of Buddhist manuscripts and artifacts. His research interests were wide-ranging; he published articles on Buddhist art, on JĀTAKA literature, and on the Mahābhārata in Buddhist literature.

Orphism, Orphic Mysteries [from Greek orphikos] Orphism originally taught of the Causeless Cause on which all speculation is impossible; the periodical appearance and disappearance of all things, from atom to universe; reimbodiment; cyclic law; the essential divinity of all beings and things; and the duality in manifestation of the universe. It postulated seven emanations from the Boundless: aether (spirit) and chaos (matter), from which two spring the world egg, out of which is born Phanes, the First Logos; then Uranus (and Gaia) the Second Logos, with Kronos (and Rhea, mother of the Olympian gods) a later phase of the Second Logos; and Zeus, the Third Logos or Demiurge — who starts a minor sevenfold hierarchy of emanation by begetting Zagreus-Dionysos the god-man, the divine son. Characteristic of Orphic cosmogony is the important place given to the number seven. “The rise of the Orphic worship of Dionysos is the most important fact in the history of Greek religion, and marks a great spiritual awakening. Its three great ideas are (1) a belief in the essential Divinity of humanity and the complete immortality or eternity of the soul, its pre-existence and its post-existence; (2) the necessity for individual responsibility and righteousness; and (3) the regeneration or redemption of man’s lower nature by his own higher Self” (F. S. Darrow).

otaniha. (大谷派). Also known as otanishu and Higashi Honganjiha, the second largest subsect of JoDO SHINSHu in the Japanese PURE LAND tradition. After SHINRAN's founding of Jodo Shinshu, the HONGANJI emerged as the dominant subsect and was administered by the descendants of Shinran's patriarchal line. During the Tokugawa period (1600-1868), the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) grew suspicious of Honganji, which during the fifteen and sixteenth centuries had not only grown to be the largest sect of Japanese Buddhism but also one of the largest landholding institutions in Japan. By involving himself in a succession dispute, the shogun was successfully able to blunt its power by causing a schism within the Honganji into east (higashi) and west (nishi) factions, with Kyonyo (1558-1614) heading the Higashi faction and Junnyo (1577-1631) leading the Nishi faction. Because the eastern faction maintained control of Shinran's mausoleum in the otani area of Kyoto, HIGASHI HONGANJI has also come to be called the otaniha. otani University developed from the Higashi Honganji seminary, which was founded in 1665. Several of the most important Buddhist thinkers of the Meiji period were affiliated with the otaniha, including NANJo BUN'Yu (1849-1927), Inoue Enryo (1858-1919), and KIYOZAWA MANSHI (1863-1903). DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI (1870-1966) founded the journal The Eastern Buddhist at otani University, and the author Kanamatsu Kenryo (1915-1986) was also affiliated with the otaniha. See also NISHI HONGANJIHA.

oyster ::: n. --> Any marine bivalve mollusk of the genus Ostrea. They are usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers. The common European oyster (Ostrea edulis), and the American oyster (Ostrea Virginiana), are the most important species.
A name popularly given to the delicate morsel contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl.


Pali The language spoken in the north of India from and before the 7th century BC to about the 5th century AD. It is still the literary sacred language of Burma, Thailand, and Ceylon. There were two factors which made Pali one of the most important literary languages of the world: first, with the rise of the Kosalas into a kingdom, the language of its capital (Savatthi, in Nepal) become the form of speech almost universally adopted. Secondly, Gautama Buddha, being of Kosalan by birth, probably used the Pali language in giving forth his teachings, and therefore the subsequent philosophical writings of his disciples were similarly couched in this language.

parinirvāna. (P. parinibbāna; T. yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa; C. banniepan; J. hatsunehan; K. panyolban 般涅槃). In Sanskrit, "final nirvāna" or "complete nirvāna," the final passage into NIRVĀnA upon the death of a buddha or an ARHAT. The term is most widely associated with the passing away of the buddha sĀKYAMUNI. Delineations of the Buddhist path set forth the experience of nirvāna in two phases. The first occurs when all of the causes for future rebirth have been destroyed, at which point one becomes an arhat or a buddha. However, the karmic seed that had fructified as the final lifetime has not yet run its full course, and thus the enlightened person does not instantly die and pass into nirvāna, but instead lives out the remainder of his or her lifetime. This type of nirvāna is sometimes called the "nirvāna with remainder" (SOPADHIsEsANIRVĀnA). When the term of the last lifetime comes to an end, there is a total extinction of all conventional physical and mental existence because the adept has previously brought an absolute end to any propensity toward defilement (KLEsA) and eradicated all the causes that would lead to any prospect of future rebirth. The nirvāna that is experienced at death is thus "without remainder" (ANUPADHIsEsANIRVĀnA), because there are no physical or mental constituents remaining that were the products of previous KARMAN; the "nirvāna without remainder" is therefore synonymous with parinirvāna. The parinirvāna of the Buddha is one of the most important scenes in all of Buddhist art and literature. It is described at length in both the eponymous Pāli MAHĀPARINIBBĀNASUTTA and Sanskrit MAHĀPARINIRVĀnASuTRA. Images of the "reclining buddha" depict the buddha at the time of his parinirvāna.

Pascal "language" (After the French mathematician {Blaise Pascal} (1623-1662)) A programming language designed by {Niklaus Wirth} around 1970. Pascal was designed for simplicity and for teaching programming, in reaction to the complexity of {ALGOL 68}. It emphasises {structured programming} constructs, data structures and {strong typing}. Innovations included {enumeration types}, {subranges}, sets, {variant records}, and the {case statement}. Pascal has been extremely influential in programming language design and has a great number of variants and descendants. ANSI/IEEE770X3.97-1993 is very similar to {ISO Pascal} but does not include {conformant arrays}. ISO 7185-1983(E). Level 0 and Level 1. Changes from Jensen & Wirth's Pascal include name equivalence; names must be bound before they are used; loop index must be local to the procedure; formal procedure parameters must include their arguments; {conformant array schemas}. An ALGOL-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967--68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming. This language, designed primarily to keep students from shooting themselves in the foot and thus extremely restrictive from a general-purpose-programming point of view, was later promoted as a general-purpose tool and, in fact, became the ancestor of a large family of languages including Modula-2 and {Ada} (see also {bondage-and-discipline language}). The hackish point of view on Pascal was probably best summed up by a devastating (and, in its deadpan way, screamingly funny) 1981 paper by Brian Kernighan (of {K&R} fame) entitled "Why Pascal is Not My Favourite Programming Language", which was turned down by the technical journals but circulated widely via photocopies. It was eventually published in "Comparing and Assessing Programming Languages", edited by Alan Feuer and Narain Gehani (Prentice-Hall, 1984). Part of his discussion is worth repeating here, because its criticisms are still apposite to Pascal itself after ten years of improvement and could also stand as an indictment of many other bondage-and-discipline languages. At the end of a summary of the case against Pascal, Kernighan wrote: 9. There is no escape This last point is perhaps the most important. The language is inadequate but circumscribed, because there is no way to escape its limitations. There are no casts to disable the type-checking when necessary. There is no way to replace the defective run-time environment with a sensible one, unless one controls the compiler that defines the "standard procedures". The language is closed. People who use Pascal for serious programming fall into a fatal trap. Because the language is impotent, it must be extended. But each group extends Pascal in its own direction, to make it look like whatever language they really want. Extensions for {separate compilation}, Fortran-like COMMON, string data types, internal static variables, initialisation, {octal} numbers, bit operators, etc., all add to the utility of the language for one group but destroy its portability to others. I feel that it is a mistake to use Pascal for anything much beyond its original target. In its pure form, Pascal is a toy language, suitable for teaching but not for real programming. Pascal has since been almost entirely displaced (by {C}) from the niches it had acquired in serious applications and systems programming, but retains some popularity as a hobbyist language in the {MS-DOS} and {Macintosh} worlds. See also {Kamin's interpreters}, {p2c}. ["The Programming Language Pascal", N. Wirth, Acta Informatica 1:35-63, 1971]. ["PASCAL User Manual and Report", K. Jensen & N. Wirth, Springer 1975] made significant revisions to the language. [BS 6192, "Specification for Computer Programming Language Pascal", {British Standards Institute} 1982]. [{Jargon File}] (1996-06-12)

Pascal ::: (language) (After the French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)) A programming language designed by Niklaus Wirth around 1970. Pascal was designed records, and the case statement. Pascal has been extremely influential in programming language design and has a great number of variants and descendants.ANSI/IEEE770X3.97-1993 is very similar to ISO Pascal but does not include conformant arrays.ISO 7185-1983(E). Level 0 and Level 1. Changes from Jensen & Wirth's Pascal include name equivalence; names must be bound before they are used; loop index must be local to the procedure; formal procedure parameters must include their arguments; conformant array schemas.An ALGOL-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967--68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming. This language, bondage-and-discipline languages. At the end of a summary of the case against Pascal, Kernighan wrote:9. There is no escapeThis last point is perhaps the most important. The language is inadequate but circumscribed, because there is no way to escape its limitations. There are no the defective run-time environment with a sensible one, unless one controls the compiler that defines the standard procedures. The language is closed.People who use Pascal for serious programming fall into a fatal trap. Because the language is impotent, it must be extended. But each group extends Pascal in all add to the utility of the language for one group but destroy its portability to others.I feel that it is a mistake to use Pascal for anything much beyond its original target. In its pure form, Pascal is a toy language, suitable for teaching but not for real programming.Pascal has since been almost entirely displaced (by C) from the niches it had acquired in serious applications and systems programming, but retains some popularity as a hobbyist language in the MS-DOS and Macintosh worlds.See also Kamin's interpreters, p2c.[The Programming Language Pascal, N. Wirth, Acta Informatica 1:35-63, 1971].[PASCAL User Manual and Report, K. Jensen & N. Wirth, Springer 1975] made significant revisions to the language.[BS 6192, Specification for Computer Programming Language Pascal, British Standards Institute 1982].[Jargon File] (1996-06-12)

Pegu. [alt. Bago]. Former capital of the Mon (Talaing) kingdom of RāmaNNadesa (1287-1539) in Lower Burma; also called Hanthawaddi. Founded c. 825 CE on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, Pegu served as an important entrepôt, which had flourishing commercial and cultural links with Sri Lanka, India, and ports farther east. The port was made the Mon capital in 1353 when the Mon court was transferred there from the city of Muttama (Martaban). The kingdom of RāmaNNadesa had originally gained independence in 1287 with the collapse of its former suzerain, the Burmese empire of PAGAN (Bagan), and for much of the next two and a half centuries it was engaged in internecine warfare with Pagan's landlocked successor state, AVA, for control of the maritime province of Bassein on Pegu's western flank. As the capital of a wealthy trading kingdom, Pegu was filled with numerous Buddhist shrines and monasteries. These included the Kyaikpien, Mahazedi, Shwegugale, and Shwemawdaw pagodas, and the nearby Shwethalyaung, a colossal reclining buddha built in 994. The most important Mon king in the religious sphere to rule from Pegu was Dhammacedi (r. 1472-1492) who, in 1476, conducted a purification of the Mon sāsana along the lines of the reformed Sinhalese tradition. The purification is recorded in the KALYĀnĪ INSCRIPTIONS erected in Pegu at site of Kalyānī Sīmā Hall. Pegu fell to the Burmese in 1539, who retained it as the capital of their new Burmese Empire until 1599. The beauty of Pegu was regularly extolled in the travelogues of European merchants and adventurers. Pegu again briefly became the capital of an independent Mon kingdom between 1747 and 1757, after which it was utterly destroyed by the Burmese king ALAUNGPAYA (r. 1752-1760), founder of the Konbaung empire (1752-1885). It was rebuilt and subsequently served as the British capital of Lower Burma between 1852 and 1862 and is currently the capital of Bago District.

Phúc ĐiỂn. (福田) (c. late-nineteenth century). Scholar-monk of the Nguyễn dynasty, considered one of the most important historians of Buddhism in premodern Vietnam. His biography is recorded in the Thiền Uyẻn Truyền Đăng Lục ("Recorded Transmission of the Lamplight in the CHAN Community"). According to this source, he was a native of Sơn Minh, Hà Nội province. His family name was Vũ. He left home to become a monk at the age of twelve and first studied under the Venerable Vien Quang of Thịnh Liẹt Đại Bi Temple. After three years, Vien Quang passed away, and Phúc Đièn went to study under the Venerable Từ Phong of Nam Dư Phúc Xuan Temple. When he was twenty years old Từ Phong passed away, and Phúc Đièn moved to Phap Van Temple in Bắc Ninh province and received full ordination under the Venerable Từ Quang. Phúc Đièn's biography shows that he was not only an author, translator, and historian, but also an activist who tirelessly built and repaired many monasteries. Besides reprinting, editing, translating (from classical Chinese into vernacular Nôm Vietnamese) numerous Buddhist texts, and recording detailed histories of various temples, he also left behind several independent works, the most important of which are the Tam Giao Nguyen Lưu ("Sources of the Three Religions"), the Đại Nam Thiền Uyẻn Truyền Đăng Tạp Lục ("Recorded Transmission of the Lamplight [in the Chan Community] of Vietnam"), and the Thiền Uyẻn Truyền Đăng Lục ("Transmission of the Lamplight in the Chan Community"). His extant writings include more works on history than on Buddhist doctrine. His aspiration was to collect all the extant materials regarding the origin and transmission of Vietnamese Buddhism. Because he was convinced that Vietnamese Buddhism was a continuation of the orthodox school of Chinese Buddhism (and specifically the CHAN ZONG), he implicitly accepted the hermeneutical strategies of Chinese Chan in constructing his view of Vietnamese Buddhist history. However, in addition to Chinese Chan documents, he also consulted Vietnamese sources, together with copious notes drawn from his own fieldwork at various temples. His writings, therefore, provide valuable sources for the understanding of Vietnamese Buddhist history.

Plan 9 "operating system" (Named after the classically bad, exceptionally low-budget SF film "Plan 9 from Outer Space") An {operating system} developed at {Bell Labs} by many researchers previously intimately involved with {Unix}. Plan 9 is superficially Unix-like but features far finer control over the {name-space} (on a per-process basis) and is inherently distributed and scalable. Plan 9 is divided according to service functions. {CPU} servers concentrate computing power into large {multiprocessors}; {file servers} provide repositories for storage and terminals give each user of the system a dedicated computer with {bitmap screen} and {mouse} on which to run a window system. The sharing of computing and file storage services provides a sense of community for a group of programmers, amortises costs and centralises and hence simplifies management and administration. The pieces communicate by a single {protocol}, built above a reliable {data transport layer} offered by an appropriate network, that defines each service as a rooted tree of files. Even for services not usually considered as files, the unified design permits some simplification. Each process has a local file name space that contains attachments to all services the process is using and thereby to the files in those services. One of the most important jobs of a terminal is to support its user's customised view of the entire system as represented by the services visible in the name space. {(http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/)}. (2005-02-15)

Plutonium ::: A highly toxic, heavy, radioactive metallic element. There are 15 isotopes of plutonium, of which only five are produced in significant quantities: plutonium-238, -239, -240, -241, and -242. Plutonium-239 is the most important plutonium isotope as it is fissile and is used in nuclear weapons and some reactors. One the other hand, plutonium-240 is unsuitable for use in nuclear weapons and reactor fuel. Thus, in a reactor whose main purpose is plutonium production, the rate at which plutonium-240 is formed controls the length of time fuel is allowed to remain under irradiation. Plutonium is categorized according to plutonium-240 content, as follows: super-grade has 2-3% Pu-240; weapons-grade has less than 7% Pu-240; fuel-grade has 7-18 (or sometimes given as 7-19) % Pu-240; and reactor-grade has 18 or greater (or 19 or greater) % Pu-240. (Note: Despite what the name implies, "reactor-grade" plutonium has been used successfully to make a nuclear bomb.)



portability "operating system, programming" The ease with which a piece of software (or {file format}) can be "ported", i.e. made to run on a new {platform} and/or compile with a new {compiler}. The most important factor is the language in which the software is written and the most portable language is almost certainly {C} (though see {Vaxocentrism} for counterexamples). This is true in the sense that C compilers are available for most systems and are often the first compiler provided for a new system. This has led several compiler writers to compile other languages to C code in order to benefit from its portability (as well as the quality of compilers available for it). The least portable type of language is obviously {assembly code} since it is specific to one particular (family of) {processor}(s). It may be possible to translate mechanically from one assembly code (or even {machine code}) into another but this is not really portability. At the other end of the scale would come {interpreted} or {semi-compiled} languages such as {LISP} or {Java} which rely on the availability of a portable {interpreter} or {virtual machine} written in a lower level language (often C for the reasons outlined above). The act or result of porting a program is called a "port". E.g. "I've nearly finished the {Pentium} port of my big bang simulation." Portability is also an attribute of {file formats} and depends on their adherence to {standards} (e.g. {ISO 8859}) or the availability of the relevant "viewing" software for different {platforms} (e.g. {PDF}). (1997-06-18)

portability ::: (operating system, programming) The ease with which a piece of software (or file format) can be ported, i.e. made to run on a new platform and/or compile with a new compiler.The most important factor is the language in which the software is written and the most portable language is almost certainly C (though see Vaxocentrism for to benefit from its portability (as well as the quality of compilers available for it).The least portable type of language is obviously assembly code since it is specific to one particular (family of) processor(s). It may be possible to the availability of a portable interpreter or virtual machine written in a lower level language (often C for the reasons outlined above).The act or result of porting a program is called a port. E.g. I've nearly finished the Pentium port of my big bang simulation.Portability is also an attribute of file formats and depends on their adherence to standards (e.g. ISO 8859) or the availability of the relevant viewing software for different platforms (e.g. PDF). (1997-06-18)

prajNā. (P. paNNā; T. shes rab; C. bore/hui; J. hannya/e; K. panya/hye 般若/慧). In Sanskrit, typically translated "wisdom," but having connotations perhaps closer to "gnosis," "awareness," and in some contexts "cognition"; the term has the general sense of accurate and precise understanding, but is used most often to refer to an understanding of reality that transcends ordinary comprehension. It is one of the most important terms in Buddhist thought, occurring in a variety of contexts. In Buddhist epistemology, prajNā is listed as one of the five mental concomitants (CAITTA) that accompany all virtuous (KUsALA) states of mind. It is associated with correct, analytical discrimination of the various factors (DHARMA) enumerated in the Buddhist teachings (dharmapravicaya). In this context, prajNā refers to the capacity to distinguish between the faults and virtues of objects in such a way as to overcome doubt. PrajNā is listed among the five spiritual "faculties" (PANCENDRIYA) or "powers" (PANCABALA), where it serves to balance faith (sRADDHĀ) and to counteract skeptical doubt (VICIKITSĀ). PrajNā is also one of the three trainings (TRIsIKsĀ), together with morality (sĪLA) and concentration (SAMĀDHI). In this context, it is distinguished from the simple stability of mind developed through the practice of concentration and refers to a specific understanding of the nature of reality, likened to a sword that cuts through the webs of ignorance (see ADHIPRAJNĀsIKsĀ). Three specific types of wisdom are set forth, including the wisdom generated by learning (sRUTAMAYĪPRAJNĀ), an intellectual understanding gained through listening to teachings or reading texts; the wisdom generated by reflection (CINTĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ), which includes conceptual insights derived from one's own personal reflection on those teachings and from meditation at a low level of concentration; and the wisdom generated by cultivation (BHĀVANĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ), which is a product of more advanced stages in meditation. This last level of wisdom is related to the concept of insight (VIPAsYANĀ). The term also appears famously in the term PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ or "perfection of wisdom," which refers to the wisdom whereby bodhisattvas achieved buddhahood, as well as a genre of texts in which that wisdom is set forth.

pundarīka. (T. padma dkar po; C. bailianhua/fentuoli hua; J. byakurenge/fundarike; K. paengnyonhwa/pundari hwa 白蓮華/芬陀利華). In Sanskrit, "white lotus" (Nelumbo nucifera), a specific species of lotus flower (PADMA), the ubiquitous flower appearing in Buddhist literature. The lotus is one of the most important symbols used in Buddhist literature and iconography. Because its spectacular flowers bloom above the muddy waters of stagnant ponds, the lotus is used as a symbol for the purity of mind that develops out of the pollution that is SAMSĀRA. The pundarīka lotus is especially famous in Buddhism as the "lotus" in the title of what is known in English as the "Lotus Sutra"; the Sanskrit title is SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, "White Lotus of the True Dharma." See also PADMA.

Pushkala (Sanskrit) Puṣkala Complete, preeminent in perfected completion; a name of several entities or things, e.g., a son of Varuna, a rishi, a buddha, Siva, and an asura, as well as of Mount Meru, which is the most important meaning.

Radio Frequency Interference ::: (hardware, testing) (RFI) Electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by electrical circuits carrying rapidly changing signals, as a by-product of their normal operation, and which causes unwanted signals (interference or noise) to be induced in other circuits.The most important means of reducing RFI are: use of bypass or decoupling capacitors on each active device (connected across the power supply, as close to resistors and VCC filtering. Shielding is usually a last resort after other techniques have failed because of the added expense of RF gaskets and the like.The efficiency of the radiation is dependant on the height above the ground or power plane (at RF one is as good as the other) and the length of the conductor differential pairs. The RF energy is capacitively coupled from the signal pair to the shield and the shield itself does the radiating.At higher frequencies, usually above 500 Mhz, traces get electrically longer and higher above the plane. Two techniques are used at these frequencies: wave copper tape can be used. Most digital equipment is designed with metal, or coated plastic, cases.Switching power supplies can be a source of RFI, but have become less of a problem as design techniques have improved.Most countries have legal requirements that electronic and electrical hardware must still work correctly when subjected to certain amounts of RFI, and should not emit RFI which could interfere with other equipment (such as radios).See also Electrostatic Discharge, Electromagnetic Compatibility. (1998-01-26)

Radio Frequency Interference "hardware, testing" (RFI) Electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by electrical circuits carrying rapidly changing signals, as a by-product of their normal operation, and which causes unwanted signals (interference or noise) to be induced in other circuits. The most important means of reducing RFI are: use of bypass or "decoupling" {capacitors} on each active device (connected across the power supply, as close to the device as possible), risetime control of high speed signals using series resistors and {VCC filtering}. Shielding is usually a last resort after other techniques have failed because of the added expense of RF gaskets and the like. The efficiency of the radiation is dependent on the height above the ground or power plane (at RF one is as good as the other) and the length of the conductor in relationship to the wavelength of the signal component (fundamental, harmonic or transient (overshoot, undershoot or ringing)). At lower frequencies, such as 133 MHz, radiation is almost exclusively via I/O cables; RF noise gets onto the power planes and is coupled to the line drivers via the VCC and ground pins. The Rf is then coupled to the cable through the line driver as common node noise. Since the noise is common mode, shielding has very little effect, even with differential pairs. The RF energy is capacitively coupled from the signal pair to the shield and the shield itself does the radiating. At higher frequencies, usually above 500 Mhz, traces get electrically longer and higher above the plane. Two techniques are used at these frequencies: wave shaping with series resistors and embedding the traces between the two planes. If all these measures still leave too much RFI, sheilding such as RF gaskets and copper tape can be used. Most digital equipment is designed with metal, or coated plastic, cases. Switching power supplies can be a source of RFI, but have become less of a problem as design techniques have improved. Most countries have legal requirements that electronic and electrical hardware must still work correctly when subjected to certain amounts of RFI, and should not emit RFI which could interfere with other equipment (such as radios). See also {Electrostatic Discharge}, {Electromagnetic Compatibility}. (1998-01-26)

rasanā. (T. ro ma). In tantric physiology, the channel (NĀdĪ) that runs from the left nostril to the base of the spine in males and from the right nostril to the base of the spine in females. It is one of three main channels, together with the central channel (AVADHuTĪ) and the LALANĀ, the left channel in females and the right channel in males. According to some systems, seventy-two thousand channels are found in the body, serving as the conduits for subtle energies or winds (PRĀnA). The most important of these channels are the avadhuti, the lalanā, and the rasanā. The central channel runs from the place between the eyebrows to the crown of the head and down in front of the spinal column, ending at the genitals. The right and left channels run parallel to the central channel on either side. These two channels wrap around the central channel at various points, of which as many as seven are enumerated. These points, called wheels (CAKRA), are located between the eyes, at the crown of the head, at the throat, at the heart, at the solar plexus, at the base of the spine, and at the tip of sexual organ. In ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, especially in practices associated with the "stage of completion" (NIsPANNAKRAMA), much emphasis is placed on loosening these knots in order to cause the winds to flow freely through the central channel.

ratna. (P. ratana; T. rin chen/dkon mchog; C. zhenbao; J. chinbo; K. chinbo 珍寶). In Sanskrit, "jewel," "valuable," or "treasure," the most common term for a precious object in Buddhist texts and regularly used in Buddhist literature as a metaphor for enlightenment, since jewels represent purity, permanence, preciousness, rarity, etc. TATHĀGATAGARBHA texts often call the tathāgatagarbha or buddha-nature the jewel-nature, since the preciousness of a jewel is unaffected even when it is sullied by mud (defilements); the TATHĀGATAGARBHASuTRA, for example, specifically compares the tathāgatagarbha to a jewel buried in the dirt (see also RATNAGOTRAVIBHĀGA). In the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra"), the buddha-nature is described in a simile as a jewel that a rich man (the Buddha) has surreptitiously sown into the robes of his destitute friend (sentient beings). Such CHAN masters as GUIFENG ZONGMI (780-840) and POJO CHINUL (1158-1210) use jewels as metaphors to explain their theories of the buddha-nature. A jewel is also used to represent the pristine nature of the realm of enlightenment: in the AVATAMSAKASuTRA, the bejeweled canopy of the king of the gods, INDRA (see INDRAJĀLA), is deployed to illustrate the mutual interdependence that pertains between all phenomena in the universe. Several different lists of jewels are found in Buddhist literature. The most important is the "three jewels" (RATNATRAYA; TRIRATNA) of the Buddha, DHARMA, and SAMGHA; commentaries explain that these three are called jewels because they are difficult to find and, once found, are of great value. The Tibetan translation of "three jewels," dkon mchog gsum (konchok sum) (lit. "three rare excellences") reflects this meaning. There are also several different lists of "seven jewels" (saptaratna). One list describes the seven "valuables" that are essential to the successful reign of a wheel-turning monarch (CAKRAVARTIN): a wheel, elephant, horse, gems, a queen, an able minister or treasurer, and a loyal adviser. Another list of seven is of the jewels decorating SUKHĀVATĪ, the PURE LAND of AMITĀBHA; these are listed in the AMITĀBHASuTRA (see also SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA) as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, agate, ruby, and carnelian. Finally, there are seven "moral" jewels listed in mainstream Buddhist literature, as in the Pāli list of morality (P. sīla; S. sĪLA), concentration (SAMĀDHI), wisdom (P. paNNā; S. PRAJNĀ), liberation (P. vimutti; S. VIMUKTI), the knowledge and vision of liberation (P. vimuttiNānadassana; S. vimuktijNānadarsana), analytical knowledge (P. patisambhidā; S. PRATISAMVID), and the factors of enlightenment (P. bojjhanga; S. BODHYAnGA).

reduction (Or "contraction") The process of transforming an expression according to certain reduction rules. The most important forms are {beta reduction} (application of a {lambda abstraction} to one or more argument expressions) and {delta reduction} (application of a mathematical function to the required number of arguments). An {evaluation strategy} (or {reduction strategy}), determines which part of an expression (which redex) to reduce first. There are many such strategies. See {graph reduction}, {string reduction}, {normal order reduction}, {applicative order reduction}, {parallel reduction}, {alpha conversion}, {beta conversion}, {delta conversion}, {eta conversion}. (1995-02-21)

reduction ::: (Or contraction) The process of transforming an expression according to certain reduction rules. The most important forms are beta reduction delta reduction (application of a mathematical function to the required number of arguments).An evaluation strategy (or reduction strategy), determines which part of an expression (which redex) to reduce first. There are many such strategies.See graph reduction, string reduction, normal order reduction, applicative order reduction, parallel reduction, alpha conversion, beta conversion, delta conversion, eta conversion. (1995-02-21)

rockfish ::: n. --> Any one of several California scorpaenoid food fishes of the genus Sebastichthys, as the red rockfish (S. ruber). They are among the most important of California market fishes. Called also rock cod, and garrupa.
The striped bass. See Bass.
Any one of several species of Florida and Bermuda groupers of the genus Epinephelus.
An American fresh-water darter; the log perch.


Romero, Francisco: Born in 1891. Professor of Philosophy at the Universities of Buenos Aires, La Plata, and the National Institute for Teachers. Director of the Philosophical Library of the Losada Publishing House, and distinguished staff member of various cultural magazines and reviews in Latin America. Francisco Romero is one of the most important figures in the philosophical movement of South America. He is the immediate successor of Korn, and as such he follows on the footsteps of his master, doing pioneer work, not only striving towards an Argentinian philosophy, but also campaigning for philosophy in the nations of Latin America through a program of cultural diffusion. Among his most important writings, the following may be mentioned: Vteja y Nueva Concepcion de la Realidad, 1932; Los Problemas de la Filosofia de la Cultura, 1936; Filosofia de la Persona, 1938; Logica (In collaboration with Pucciarelli), 1936; Programa de una Filosofia, 1940; Un Filosofo de la Problematicidad, 1934; Descartes y Husserl, 1938; Contribucion al Estudio de las Relaciones de Comparacion, 1938; Teoria y Practica de la Verdad, 1939. Three characteristic notes may be observed in the philosophy of Romero Aporetics or Problematics, Philosophy of Weltanschauungen, Philosophy of the Person. The first has to do with his criterion of knowledge. Justice to all the facts of experience, over against mere system building, seems to be the watchword. The desirability and gradual imposition of Structuralism as the modern Weltanschauung, over against outworn world conceptions such as Evolution, Mechanism, Rationalism, etc., is the emphasis of the second principle of his philosophy. Personality as a mere function of transcendence, with all that transcendence implies in the realm of value and history, carries the main theme of his thought. See Latin American Philosophy. -- J.A.F.

Saddanīti. In Pāli, the "Practice of Grammar," an important work on Pāli grammar and philology by the twelfth century Burmese monk AggavaMsa. Composed in 1154, it is considered the most important of the extant Pāli grammars. It draws both on the first known Pāli grammar, written by Kaccāyana, as well as Pānini's Sanskrit grammar. Its twenty-eight chapters contain a detailed morphology of Pāli and discussions of prefixes and particles.

salmon ::: pl. --> of Salmon ::: v. --> Any one of several species of fishes of the genus Salmo and allied genera. The common salmon (Salmo salar) of Northern Europe and Eastern North America, and the California salmon, or quinnat, are the most important species. They are extensively preserved for food. See

SAMANA. ::: Life-current which regulates interchange of prdtia and apana, equalises them and is the most important agent in maintaining the equilibrium of the vital forces and their func- tions.

samana ::: [one of the five pranas]; it is situated centrally in the body, and regulates the interchange of the prana and apana at their meeting place, equalises them and is the most important agent in maintaining the equilibrium of the vital forces and their functions; it is the agent for the assimilation of food.

samana ::: one of the five workings of the life-force (pañcapran.a) in the body, that which regulates the interchange of pran.a and apana where they meet near the navel; it "equalises them and is the most important agent in maintaining the equilibrium of the vital forces and their functions".

samāropa. (T. sgro 'dogs; C. zengyi; J. zoyaku; K. chŭngik 增益). In Sanskrit, "superimposition," "reification," or "erroneous affirmation"; the mistaken attribution to an object of a quality that the object does not in fact possess. The term samāropa is sometimes paired with APAVĀDA ("denigration" or "denial"), where samāropa would refer to the claim or belief that something that in fact does not exist, does exist, while apavāda would refer to the claim or belief that something that in fact does exist, does not exist (such as the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS). In Buddhist philosophy, the most important of such erroneous superimpositions is the attribution of a perduring self (ĀTMAN) to the impermanent aggregates (SKANDHA). In MADHYAMAKA, samāropa refers to the false ascription of intrinsic nature (SVABHĀVA) to phenomena (DHARMA). The purpose of the Madhyamaka critique is to refute these false qualities that have been superimposed by ignorance onto the objects of experience; the conventionally existent objects that serve as the object of these false projections are not refuted. In YOGĀCĀRA, samāropa is often used to refer to the superimposition of objective existence to phenomena that are in fact of the nature of consciousness.

SaMdhinirmocanasutra. (T. Mdo sde dgongs 'grel; C. Jieshenmi jing; J. Gejinmikkyo; K. Haesimmil kyong 解深密經). In Sanskrit, variously interpreted to mean the sutra "Unfurling the Real Meaning," "Explaining the Thought," or "Unraveling the Bonds"; one of the most important Mahāyāna sutras, especially for the YOGĀCĀRA school. The sutra is perhaps most famous for its delineation of the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA), which would become an influential schema for classifying the teachings of the Buddha. The sutra has ten chapters. The first four chapters deal with the nature of the ultimate (PARAMĀRTHA) and how it is to be understood. The fifth chapter discusses the nature of consciousness, including the storehouse consciousness (ĀLAYAVIJNĀNA) where predispositions (VĀSANĀ) are deposited and ripen. The sixth chapter discusses the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA). In the seventh chapter, the division of the Buddha's teachings into the provisional (NEYĀRTHA) and the definitive (NĪTĀRTHA) is set forth. The eighth chapter explains how to develop sAMATHA and VIPAsYANĀ. The ninth chapter describes the ten bodhisattva BHuMIs and the final chapter describes the nature of buddhahood. Each of these chapters contains important passages that are cited in subsequent commentaries and treatises. ¶ Perhaps the most influential of all the sutra's chapters is the seventh, which discusses the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma (dharmacakrapravartana). There, the bodhisattva Paramārthasamudgata explains that the first turning of the wheel had occurred at ṚsIPATANA (the Deer Park at SĀRNĀTH), where the Buddha had taught the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS to those of the sRĀVAKA ("listener, disciple") vehicle. This first turning of the wheel is called the CATUḤSATYADHARMACAKRA, the "dharma wheel of the four truths." The bodhisattva says, "This wheel of dharma turned by the Buddha is surpassable, an occasion [for refutation], provisional, and subject to dispute." Referring presumably to the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ) sutras, the bodhisattva then goes on to explain that the Buddha then turned the wheel of dharma a second time for those who had entered the Mahāyāna, teaching them the doctrine of emptiness (suNYATĀ), that phenomena are "unproduced, unextinguished, originally quiescent, and inherently beyond sorrow." Commentators would call this second turning of the wheel the ALAKsAnADHARMACAKRA, "the dharma wheel of signlessness." But this wheel also is provisional. The Buddha finally turned the wheel of doctrine a third time for those of all vehicles, clearly differentiating how things exist. "This wheel of doctrine turned by the BHAGAVAT is unsurpassed, not an occasion [for refutation], of definitive meaning; it is indisputable." Commentators would call this third turning of the wheel the PARAMĀRTHAVINIsCAYADHARMACAKRA, "the dharma wheel for ascertaining the ultimate"; it is also called "the dharma wheel that makes a fine delineation" (*SUVIBHAKTADHARMACAKRA). The sutra thus takes something of an historical perspective on the Buddha's teaching, declaring both that his first sermon on the four noble truths addressed to srāvakas and his teaching of the perfection of wisdom addressed to bodhisattvas was not his final and most clearly delineated view. That consummate view, his true intention, is found in the third turning of the wheel of dharma, a wheel that includes, at very least, the SaMdhinirmocanasutra itself. The SaMdhinirmocanasutra was translated into Chinese four times: by GUnABHADRA, BODHIRUCI, PARAMĀRTHA, and XUANZANG. Of these recensions, the translations by Bodhiruci and Xuanzang are complete renderings of the sutra and circulated most widely within the East Asian tradition; the other two renderings were shorter digests of the sutra.

Sanat-kumara (Sanskrit) Sanat-kumāra [from sanat from of old, always + kumāra youth from ku with difficulty + māra mortal] Eternal youth; the most important of the four groups of kumaras, the mind-born sons of Brahma who “refused to create.” These purely spiritual beings, being cosmically youthful, were destined by evolution to pass through the realms of matter. The four groups of kumaras — Sanat, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanatana — as names, “are all significant qualifications of the degrees of human intellect” (TG 289). Personified, Sanat is the oldest of the progenitors of mankind. Although Hindu literature usually speaks of four kumaras, nevertheless it frequently hints at there being seven such mind-born sons. The four kumaras named above are considered exoteric, while three others are considered esoteric, and their names are given as Sana, Kapila, and Sanat-sujata.

sāntaraksita. (T. Zhi ba 'tsho) (725-788). Eighth-century Indian Mahāyāna master who played an important role in the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. According to traditional accounts, he was born into a royal family in Zahor in Bengal and was ordained at NĀLANDĀ monastery, where he became a renowned scholar. He is best known for two works. The first is the TATTVASAMGRAHA, or "Compendium of Principles," a critical survey and analysis of the various non-Buddhist and Buddhist schools of Indian philosophy, set forth in 3,646 verses in twenty-six chapters. This work, which is preserved in Sanskrit, along with its commentary by his disciple KAMALAsĪLA, remains an important source on the philosophical systems of India during this period. His other famous work is the MADHYAMAKĀLAMKĀRA, or "Ornament of the Middle Way," which sets forth his own philosophical position, identified by later Tibetan doxographers as YOGĀCĀRA-*SVĀTANTRIKA-MADHYAMAKA, so called because it asserts, as in YOGĀCĀRA, that external objects do not exist, i.e., that sense objects are of the nature of consciousness; however, it also asserts, unlike Yogācāra and like MADHYAMAKA, that consciousness lacks ultimate existence. It further asserts that conventional truths (SAMVṚTISATYA) possess their own character (SVALAKsAnA) and in this regard differs from the other branch of Madhyamaka, the *PRĀSAnGIKA. The Yogacāra-Madhyamaka synthesis, of which sāntaraksita is the major proponent, was the most important philosophical development of late Indian Buddhism, and the MadhyamakālaMkāra is its locus classicus. This work, together with the MADHYAMAKĀLOKA of sāntaraksita's disciple Kamalasīla and the SATYADVAYAVIBHAnGA of JNĀNAGARBHA, are known in Tibet as the "three works of the eastern *Svātantrikas" (rang rgyud shar gsum) because the three authors were from Bengal. sāntaraksita's renown as a scholar was such that he was invited to Tibet by King KHRI SRONG LDE BTSAN. When a series of natural disasters indicated that the local deities were not positively disposed to the introduction of Buddhism, he left Tibet for Nepal and advised the king to invite the Indian tantric master PADMASAMBHAVA, who subdued the local deities. With this accomplished, sāntaraksita returned, the first Buddhist monastery of BSAM YAS was founded, and sāntaraksita invited twelve MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA monks to Tibet to ordain the first seven Tibetan monks. sāntaraksita lived and taught at Bsam yas from its founding (c. 775) until his death (c. 788) in an equestrian accident. Tibetans refer to him as the "bodhisattva abbot." The founding of Bsam yas and the ordination of the first monks were pivotal moments in Tibetan Buddhist history, and the relationship of sāntaraksita, Padmasambhava, and Khri srong lde btsan figures in many Tibetan legends, most famously as brothers in a previous life. Prior to his death, sāntaraksita predicted that a doctrinal dispute would arise in Tibet, in which case his disciple Kamalasīla should be invited from India. Such a conflict arose between the Indian and Chinese factions, and Kamalasīla came to Tibet to debate with the Chan monk Moheyan in what is referred to as the BSAM YAS DEBATE, or the "Council of Lhasa."

SarvatathāgatatattvasaMgraha. (T. De bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi de kho na nyid bsdus pa; C. Yiqie rulai zhenshishe dasheng xianzheng sanmei dajiaowang jing; J. Issainyorai shinjitsusho daijogenshozanmai daikyoogyo; K. Ilch'e yorae chinsilsop taesŭng hyonjŭng sammae taegyowang kyong 一切如來眞實攝大乘現證三昧大敎王經). In Sanskrit, "Compendium of Principles of All the Tathāgatas"; one of the most important Buddhist tantras, whose influence extended through India, China, Japan, and Tibet. Likely dating from the late seventh century, the text presented a range of doctrines, themes, and practices that would come to be regarded as emblematic of tantric practice. These include the the view that sĀKYAMUNI Buddha did not actually achieve enlightenment under the BODHI TREE but did so through ritual consecration. The commentaries to the SarvatathāgatatattvasaMgraha recount that Prince SIDDHĀRTHA was meditating on the banks of the NAIRANJANĀ River when he was roused by the buddha VAIROCANA and all the buddhas of the ten directions, who informed him that such meditation would not result in the achievement of buddhahood. He thus left his physical body behind and traveled in a mind-made body (MANOMAYAKĀYA) to the AKANIstHA heaven, where he received various consecrations and achieved buddhahood. He next descended to the summit of Mount SUMERU, where he taught the YOGATANTRAs. Finally, he returned to the world, reinhabited his physical body, and then displayed to the world the well-known defeat of MĀRA and the achievement of buddhahood under the Bodhi tree. The tantra also include the violent subjugation of Mahesvara (siva) by the wrathful bodhisattva VAJRAPĀnI, suggesting competition between Hindu and Buddhist tantric practitioners at the time of its composition and the increasing importance of violent imagery in Buddhist tantra. Such important elements as the five buddha families (PANCATATHĀGATA) and the practice of visualizing oneself as a deity also appear in the text. The tantra is also important for the prominment role given to the buddha Vairocana. In East Asia, the SarvatathāgatatattvasaMgraha was particularly influential in the form of the VAJRAsEKHARA, the reconstructed Sanskrit title derived from the Chinese translations of the first chapter of the SarvatathāgatatattvasaMgraha made by VAJRABODHI and AMOGHAVAJRA during the Tang dynasty. This would become a central text for the esoteric traditions of China and Japan. The full text of the SarvatathāgatatattvasaMgraha was not translated into Chinese until Dānapāla completed his version in 1015. Ānandagarbha (fl. c. 750) wrote an important commentary on the SarvatathāgatatattvasaMgraha called Tattvālokakarī ("Illumination of the Compendium of Principles Tantra"), and sākyamitra (fl. c. 750) wrote a commentary called KosalālaMkāra ("Ornament of Kosala"). Ānandagarbha's mandala ritual called Sarvavajrodayamandalavidhi is a ritual text based on the first chapter of the SarvatathāgatatattvasaMgraha. The tantra was very influential in Tibet during both the earlier dissemination (SNGA DAR) and the later dissemination (PHYI DAR) periods. Classified as a yogatantra, it was an important source during the later period, for example, for such scholars as BU STON RIN CHEN GRUB and TSONG KHA PA in their systematizations of tantra.

SCIENCE The task of science is to explore physical, but not superphysical reality. Without the facts of esoterics, mankind will remain ignorant of 46 of the 49 cosmic worlds, science will be able to explore only the 49th. K 1.43.2

Natural science seeks to explore visible, physical reality. Thereby its task is given and at the same time its inevitable limitation. Science is physicalism.

Science makes its way slowly, advancing step by step, by ascertaining facts. These facts are summed up in theories and are explained be hypotheses. Both theories and hypotheses are continually being changed through newly ascertained facts. Facts, theories, and hypotheses are joined together into a thought system which is regarded as scientific truth. These temporarily ruling systems of orientation, which show how far research has advanced, are continually being changed because of new facts with new theories and hypotheses. Facts that cannot be fitted into the prevailing systems of theories and hypotheses, are regarded as doubtful. Facts that it is not possible to ascertain by the methods of research used by scientists, are not regarded as facts. It follows from this that the most important quality of an hypothesis is not its being true, but its being probable: acceptable to science with its tremendously limited ability to explain. K
5.42.1,3


Sepher (Hebrew) Sēfer Writing, something that is written, a book. In the plural (sĕfārīm), books or writings, the Jewish holy scriptures. In the Sepher Yetsirah, an early Qabbalistic treatise and one of the most important in the Qabbalah, the first verse states that the Lord and King of the universe formed “the universe in thirty-two secret paths of wisdom by means of three Sepharim: [1] Sephar, [2] and Sippur, [3] and Sepher, i.e. through [1] Numbering; [2] Numberer; and [3] Number.” The verbal root from which this word is taken originally meant to make marks — not only to write but also to number or count. Hence the play upon the three words, described as the three Sepharim, has reference to the activities of the Sephiroth in unfolding both intrinsic mathematical and numerical quantities and attributes by means of the spiritual beings forming the Sephiroth and eventuating in the “number” carpentry or structure of the cosmos.

Serapis [from Greek Sarapis from Egyptian Ȧsȧr-Ḥāpi Osiris-Apis] The most important deity at Alexandria during the time of Ptolemy Soter, its worship spread throughout Egypt and into the Roman Empire, establishing itself firmly even in Rome. Plutarch recounts that Ptolemy Soter in his desire to make Alexandria the chief center of his empire, sought to unite Greeks and Egyptians in a common worship. He dreamed that a strange god appeared to him and, on telling his friends, one said that he had seen such a statue at Sinope. The king immediately imported this statue, the Greeks, declaring that it represented Pluto, ruler of the underworld, with his guardian dog Cerberus, while the Egyptians stated that it portrayed Asar-Hapi (Osiris in the underworld) with Anubis. Plutarch states that Osiris is the same as Sarapis, “this latter appellation having been given him, upon his being translated from the order of Genii to that of the Gods, Sarapis being none other than that common name by which all those are called, who have thus changed their nature, as is well known by those who are initiated into the mysteries of Osiris” (On Isis and Osiris, sec 28).

siddhānta. (T. grub mtha'; C. zong; J. shu; K. chong 宗). In Sanskrit, "conclusion" or "tenet," the term is used to refer to the various schools of Indian philosophy (both Buddhist and non-Buddhist), to their particular positions, and to texts that set out those positions in a systematic fashion. The most important examples of Buddhist siddhānta texts in India are BHĀVAVIVEKA's [alt. Bhavya] autocommentary (called TARKAJVĀLĀ) on his MADHYAMAKAHṚDAYAKĀRIKĀ and sĀNTARAKsITA's TATTVASAMGRAHA; both set forth the positions of non-Buddhist and Buddhist philosophies in order to demonstrate the superiority of their respective MADHYAMAKA positions. They are paralleled in Indian non-Buddhist literature by sankarācārya's Brahmasutrabhāsya, for example, that sets forth the views of nāstika (heterodox) and āstika (orthodox) schools and shows the weaknesses and strengths in each as a strategy to demonstrate the superiority of sankara's own Advaita Vedānta philosophy. None of these Indian works were written simply as informative textbooks about the tenets of different Indian schools of thought. They instead have clear polemical agendas: namely, demonstrating the superiority of their own position, and showing how the lesser philosophies are either a hindrance or a stepping stone to their own philosophy, as revealed by the Buddha in the case of Buddhist siddhānta, and by the Vedas in the case of non-Buddhists. The SarvadarsanasaMgraha, a medieval work written from the perspective of a later Advaita school based on sankara's model, was important during the early reception of Buddhism in Europe and America in the nineteenth century because it cites the works of different schools of philosophy, including YOGĀCĀRA and Madhyamaka writers that were otherwise unknown at the time. As a literary genre, siddhānta reaches its full development in Tibet, where ever more detailed classifications of Indian and later Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian schools of Buddhism are found. Of particular importance are works known by the names of their authors: Dbu pa blo gsal (Upa Losel) (fl, fourteenth century), the first 'JAM DBYANGS BZHAD PA (1648-1721), and Lcang skya Rol pa'i rdo rje (1717-1786). Customarily Tibetan Buddhist siddhāntas employ the following structure: under the rubric of non-Buddhist (T. phyi pa) philosophies, they discuss the positions of the six schools that include Nyāya, Vaisesika, JAINA, SāMkhya, Yoga, and MīmāMsā. They are all dismissed as inferior, based on their assertion of the existence of a self (ĀTMAN) and a creator deity (īsvara), both positions that are refuted in Buddhism. The Buddhist schools are set forth in ascending order, starting with the HĪNAYĀNA schools of VAIBHĀsIKA and SAUTRĀNTIKA, followed by the Mahāyāna schools of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka. A typical structure for the presentation of each school was a tripartite division into the basis (gzhi), which set forth matters of epistemology and ontology; the path (lam), which set forth the structure of the path according to the particular school; and the fruition ('bras bu), which set forth the school's understanding of the enlightenment of ARHATs and buddhas. In Tibet, the genre of siddhānta was later expanded to include works that set forth the various sects and schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism. Cf. JIAOXIANG PANSHI.

Sitatārā. (T. Sgrol dkar). In Sanskrit, "White Tārā," one of the two most significant forms of the goddess TĀRĀ, one of the most important female deities of late Indian Mahāyāna and an object of particular devotion in Tibet. Her other famous form is "Dark Tārā" or "Green Tārā" (sYĀMATĀRĀ). Sitatārā is white in color and is depicted seated in the lotus posture (PADMĀSANA). Her right hand makes the boon-granting gesture (VARADAMUDRĀ) and her left hand make the gesture of protection (ABHAYAMUDRĀ). She has seven eyes: her two eyes, a third eye in her forehead, and eyes in the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. She has a somewhat more peaceful mien than Green Tārā, and is propitiated especially for health and long life. In the story of King SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO and his two wives, one Chinese and one Nepalese, the Chinese wife, Princess WENCHENG, is said to have been an incarnation of Sitatārā.

Soka Gakkai. (創價學會/創価学会). In Japanese, "Value-Creating Society," a Japanese Buddhist lay organization associated with the NICHIRENSHu, founded by MAKIGUCHI TSUNESABURO (1871-1944) and his disciple Toda Josei (1900-1958). Formerly a teacher, Makiguchi became a follower of Nichiren's teachings, finding that they supported his own ideas about engendering social and religious values, and converted to NICHIREN SHoSHu in 1928. In 1930, he established a lay organization under the umbrella of the Nichiren Shoshu, which initially called itself the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Creating Educational Values Society), and led its first general meeting. After its inauguration, the society began to take on a decidedly religious character, focusing on missionary work for Nichiren Shoshu. As the Pacific War expanded, Makiguchi and his followers refused to cooperate with state-enforced SHINTo practices, leading to a rift between them and TAISEKIJI, the head monastery of Nichiren Shoshu. In 1943, the society almost disintegrated with the imprisonment of Makiguchi and Toda, along with twenty other leaders charged with lèse-majesté and violations of the Public Order Act, which required each family to enshrine a Shinto talisman in its home. Makiguchi died in 1944 in prison, but Toda survived and was released on parole in July 1945. After his release, Toda took charge of the organization, renaming it Soka Gakkai in 1946. He successfully led a massive proselytization campaign that gained Soka Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu vast numbers of new converts and by the late 1950s, upwards of 750,000 families had become adherents. After Toda died in 1958, IKEDA DAISAKU (b. 1928) became its third president and the society grew even more rapidly in Japan during the 1960s and the 1970s. In 1975, Ikeda also founded Soka Gakkai International (SGI), which disseminated the society's values around the world. Soka Gakkai publishes numerous books and periodicals, as well as a daily newspaper in Japan. During this period, Soka Gakkai also became involved in Japanese domestic politics, establishing its own political party, the Komeito (Clean Government Party) in 1964, which became completely separate and independent from the Soka Gakkai in 1970. The society also supported Taisekiji with massive donations, including raising the funds for a new main shrine hall for the monastery. Soka Gakkai, like other groups in the Nichiren lineage, focuses on worship of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") and its adherents are expected to chant daily the title (DAIMOKU) of the sutra, NAM MYoHoRENGEKYo, as well as recite the most important sections of the sutra and study Nichiren's writings. Soka Gakkai believes that all beings possess the capacity to attain buddhahood and emphasizes the ability of each person's buddha-nature to overcome obstacles and achieve happiness. Soka Gakkai followers can accomplish these goals through a "human revolution" (the title of one of Ikeda's books) that creates a sense of oneness between the individual and the environment, thus demonstrating how each individual can positively affect the surrounding world. As tensions grew between the Nichiren Shoshu and its increasingly powerful lay subsidiary, Nikken (b. 1922), the sixty-seventh chief priest of Nichiren Shoshu, tried to bring its membership directly under his control. His efforts were ultimately unsuccessful and he excommunicated the Soka Gakkai in 1991, forbidding Soka Gakkai followers from having access to the holiest shrines associated with Nichiren. Sokka Gakkai remains at the center of controversy because of its strong emphasis on recruitment and proselytization, its demonization of enemies, and a mentorship structure within the organization that some claim creates a cult of personality centered on Ikeda. Soka Gakkai remains among the largest Buddhist organizations in the Western world.

SOLAR PLEXUS—The largest sympathetic plexus in the body found behind the stomach in front of the aorta and the crura of the diaphragm. It is composed of branches of the pneumogastric and great splanchnic nerves; the most important ganglia connected

spread spectrum communications ::: (communications) (Or spread spectrum) A technique by which a signal to be transmitted is modulated onto a pseudo-random, noise-like, wideband carrier signal, producing a transmission with a much larger bandwidth than that of the data modulation.Reception is accomplished by cross correlation of the received wide band signal with a synchronously generated replica of the carrier.Spread-spectrum communications offers many important benefits:Low probability of detection, interception or determination of the transmitter's location. To an observer who does not possess information about the carrier, the transmission is indistinguishable from other sources of noise.High immunity against interference and jamming (intentional interference). The presence of (narrowband) interference signals only decreases the channel's signals, which would require very high power (again assuming that the jammer does not know the characteristics of the carrier).High immunity against adverse effects of multipath transmission. In the presence of multiple paths between transmitter and receiver (e.g. by reflected signals), mobile communications, where it causes blind spots - locations where no signal can be received.Transmitter/receiver pairs using independent random carriers can operate in the same frequency range with minimal interference. These are called Code Division can only accomodate a fixed number of channels determined by available bandwidth and channel width (data rate).When the data modulation cannot be distinguished from the carrier modulation, and the carrier modulation is random to an unwanted observer, the spread spectrum system assumes cryptographic capabilities, with the carrier modulation taking on the function of a key in a cipher system.The most important practical modes of spread spectrum coding are Direct Sequence (DS) and Frequency Hopping (FH). In DS, a pseudo random sequence is driven by a pseudo random sequence of numbers to generate output frequencies that hop around in the desired frequency range.Spread Spectrum development began during World War II, with the earliest studies dating from the 1920s. Most papers remained classified until the 1980s.Frequency hopping spread spectrum was invented by Hedy Lamarr (the most beautiful girl in the world, Samson and Delilah etc.) and the composer George Antheil. They held a patent filed in 1942. Direct sequence spread spectrum was invented by Paul Kotowski and Kurt Dannehl at Telefunken.The technique is used extensively in military communications today. Commercial applications include cellular telephony and mobile networking.[Spread Spectrum Communications, Charles E. Cook et al (Ed.), IEEE Press, New York, 1983. ISBN 0-87942-170-3]. , .(2001-08-08)

spread spectrum communications "communications" (Or "spread spectrum") A technique by which a signal to be transmitted is modulated onto a {pseudorandom}, noise-like, wideband {carrier signal}, producing a transmission with a much larger {bandwidth} than that of the data {modulation}. Reception is accomplished by {cross correlation} of the received wide band signal with a synchronously generated replica of the carrier. Spread-spectrum communications offers many important benefits: Low probability of detection, interception or determination of the transmitter's location. To an observer who does not possess information about the carrier, the transmission is indistinguishable from other sources of noise. High immunity against interference and jamming (intentional interference). The presence of (narrowband) interference signals only decreases the channel's {signal-to noise ratio} and therefore its {error rate}, which can be dealt with by using {error correcting codes}. A jammer would have to use wideband interference signals, which would require very high power (again assuming that the jammer does not know the characteristics of the carrier). High immunity against adverse effects of multipath transmission. In the presence of multiple paths between transmitter and receiver (e.g. by reflected signals), signals of certain frequencies can be cancelled at certain locations when the difference in path delays between multiple propagation paths cause the signals to arrive out of phase. This effect is particularly troublesome in narrowband mobile communications, where it causes "blind spots" - locations where no signal can be received. Transmitter/receiver pairs using independent random carriers can operate in the same frequency range with minimal interference. These are called {Code Division Multiple Access} (CDMA) systems. Increasing the number of T/R pairs again only gradually increases each channel's error rate. In contrast, narrowband systems can only accomodate a fixed number of channels determined by available bandwidth and channel width (data rate). When the data modulation cannot be distinguished from the carrier modulation, and the carrier modulation is random to an unwanted observer, the spread spectrum system assumes cryptographic capabilities, with the carrier modulation taking on the function of a key in a {cipher} system. The most important practical modes of spread spectrum coding are Direct Sequence (DS) and {Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum} (FH). In DS, a pseudo random sequence is phase-shift-keyed (PSK) onto the carrier. Spread Spectrum development began during World War II, with the earliest studies dating from the 1920s. Most papers remained classified until the 1980s. Direct sequence spread spectrum was invented by Paul Kotowski and Kurt Dannehl at Telefunken. The technique is used extensively in military communications today. Commercial applications include {mobile telephony} and mobile networking. ["Spread Spectrum Communications", Charles E. Cook et al (Ed.), IEEE Press, New York, 1983. ISBN 0-87942-170-3]. {Hedy Lamarr (http://sirius.be/lamarr.htm)}, {(http://ncafe.com/chris/pat2/)}. (2001-08-08)

srīsiMha. (T. Shrī sing ha) (fl. eighth century). Sanskrit proper name of an important figure in the early dissemination (SNGA DAR) of Buddhism to Tibet, especially in the propagation of the RDZOGS CHEN teachings. According to some Tibetan accounts, he was born in China, although other sources identify his birthplace as Khotan or Kinnaur. At the age of eighteen, he is said to have traveled to Suvarnadvīpa, often identified as the island of Sumatra. There he has a vision of AVALOKITEsVARA, who advised him to go to India. Before doing so, he studied at "five-peak mountain," which some sources assume is WUTAISHAN in China. He next went to the Sosadvīpa charnel ground (sMAsĀNA), where he studied with MANJUsRĪMITRA for twenty-five years. After his teacher's death, he traveled to BODHGAYĀ, where he unearthed tantric texts hidden there by MaNjusrīmitra. srīsiMha is especially remembered in Tibet as the teacher of VAIROCANA, one of the most important figures in the earlier dissemination of Buddhism to Tibet. Vairocana was one of the first seven Tibetans (SAD MI BDUN) ordained as Buddhist monks by sĀNTARAKsITA at the monastery of BSAM YAS, and he soon became an illustrious translator. He is said to have been a disciple of PADMASAMBHAVA and a participant on the Indian side in the BSAM YAS DEBATE. After Padmasambhava's departure from Tibet, the king required a fuller exposition of TANTRA and sent Vairocana to India to obtain further tantric instructions. After many trials, he arrived in India, where he was instructed by srīsiMha. Fearing that other Indian masters would object to his imparting the precious esoteric teachings to a foreigner, srīsiMha insisted that he study sutras and less esoteric tantric texts with other teachers during the day, conveying the most secret teachings to him under the cover of darkness; these were the rdzogs chen teachings that Vairocana took back to Tibet and taught to king KHRI SRONG LDE BTSAN. Among other esoteric teachings that Vairocana gave to srīsiMha is srīsiMha's tantric commentary on the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀHṚDAYASuTRA.

Stag tshang. (Taktsang). In Tibetan, "Tiger's Lair," a complex of meditation caves and temples located in Paro, Bhutan, considered one of the most important sacred Buddhist sites in the Himalayan region associated with the Indian adept PADMASAMBHAVA; also known as Spa gro Stag tshang (Paro Taktsang). Situated on a sheer cliff more than two thousand feet above the valley floor, the complex is the best known among numerous Stag tshang, or "Tiger's Lair," sites located across eastern Tibet. According to traditional accounts, Padmasambhava miraculously flew to the spot in wrathful form as RDO RJE DROD LO, seated on the back of a tigress believed to have been his consort YE SHES MTSHO RGYAL, and remained there for three months. In 853, one of Padmasambhava's twenty-five main disciples, Glang chen Dpal gyi seng ge (Langchen Palkyi Sengye), went to meditate in the main cave at Stag tshang, after which it became known as Stag tshang dpal phug, or "Pal's cave at Taktsang." Later, many great masters undertook meditation retreats there; these include PHA DAM PA SANGS RGYAS, MA GCIG LAB SGRON, THANG STONG RGYAL PO, and, according to one tradition, the great YOGIN MI LA RAS PA. The first buildings were likely erected in the fourteenth century. However, it was under the direction of the Bhutanese reformer ZHABS DRUNG NGAG DBANG RNAM RGYAL and later his regent Bstan 'dzin rab rgyas, that the modern structure was completed in 1692. In 1998, the complex was destroyed by fire.

St. Louis School of Philosophy: Started with the first meeting between Henry Brokmeyer and Wm. Torrey Harris (q.v.) in 1858, it became one of the most important and influential movements in America to die in the early 1880's with the dispersion of the members who included among others Denton J. Snider, Adolph E. Kroeger, George H. Howison, and Thomas Davidson. It engendered the St. Louis Philosophical Society (founded in Feb., 1866) and the Journal of Speculative Philosophy. Cf. D. S. Snider, St. Louis Movement, and Charles M. Perry, St. Louts Movement in Philosophy. -- K.F.L.

Succession and Duration: These concepts are inseparable from the idea of 'flowing' time in which every event endures relatively to a succession of other events. In Leibniz's view, succession was the most important characteristic of time defined by him as "the order of succession." Some thinkers, notably H. Bergson, regard duration (duree) as the very essence of time, "time perceived as indivisible," in which the vital impulse (elan vital) becomes the creative source of all change comparable to a snow-ball rolling down a hill and swelling on its way. According to A. N. Whitehead, duration is 'a slab of nature' possessing temporal thickness, it is a cross-section of the world in its process, or "the immediate present condition of the world at some epoch." -- R.B.W.

Survival of the Fittest According to Darwin, the most important factor in organic evolution was natural selection, operating on small casual variations in the organisms whose peculiarities were best adapted to their environment would have the best chance of surviving and, their superiority being transmitted to their offspring, the net result would be a survival of the fittest and an elimination of the unfit.

tamil ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Tamils, or to their language. ::: n. --> One of a Dravidian race of men native of Northern Ceylon and Southern India.
The Tamil language, the most important of the Dravidian languages. See Dravidian, a.


Tetrahedron ::: The Platonic solid associated with the element of Fire. Probably the most important of the Platonic solids to become familiar with. Finds many usages in certain visualization practices and etheric work.

The basic idea behind ancestor worship seems to be that its holders envisaged unity in a continuous and never-ending stream of lives, perpetuating itself in succession through the ages, and out of which and back into which individuals arise and sink, an idea in direct contrast to the modern view that the individual is the most important factor in life.

"The inner vision is an open door on higher planes of consciousness beyond the physical mind which gives room for a wider truth and experience to enter and act upon the mind. It is not the only or the most important door, but it is one which comes readiest to very many if not most and can be a very powerful help.” Letters on Yoga

“The inner vision is an open door on higher planes of consciousness beyond the physical mind which gives room for a wider truth and experience to enter and act upon the mind. It is not the only or the most important door, but it is one which comes readiest to very many if not most and can be a very powerful help.” Letters on Yoga

The most important infinite cardinal number is the cardinal number of the class of inductive cardinal numbers (0, 1, 2, . . .); it is called aleph-zero and symbolized by a Hebrew letter aleph followed by an inferior 0.

The most important thing for this purifiration of the heart is an absolute sincerity. No pretence with oneself, no conceal- ment from the Divine, or oneself, or the Guru, a straight look at one’s movements, a straight will to make them strai^t.

The OKW was established in February 1938 and controlled all matters of inter-service policy. It was directly responsible for the overall conduct of operations during the war. Its most senior officer was Wilhelm Keitel, Field Marshal and Chief of Staff for the whole of the period from 1938 to 1945. The most important section of the OKW, which was directly concerned with field operations, was the Armed Forces Operations Staff (Wehrmachtsfuehrungsstab, WFST). During the war this was commanded by General Alfred Jodl. The decree promulgated by Hitler that established the OKW also specified that "Command authority over the entire Armed Forces is from now on exercised directly by me personally." One of the principal agencies of the OKW was the General Armed Forces Office (Allgemeines Wehrmachtamt, AWA), which was concerned primarily with administrative matters. An important subdivision of the AWA was the Office of the Chief of Prisoner-of-War Affairs (Chef des Kriegsgefangenwesens, Chef Kriegs-Gef).

Theophrastus: (370-287 B.C.), the most important disciple and friend of Aristotle, left voluminous writings of which only fragments are extant; they dealt with many topics of philosophy and science (notably, botany) and defended his master's philosophy against rival schools of thought, particularly against Stoics. Cf. Characters of Theophrastus. -- R.R.V.

The philosophy of Aristotle was continued after his death by other members of the Peripatetic school, the most important of whom were Theophrastus, Eudemus of Rhodes, and Strato of Lampsacus. In the Alexandrian Age, particularly after the editing of Aristotle's works by Andronicus of Rhodes (about 50 B.C.), Aristotelianism was the subject of numerous expositions and commentaries, such as those of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, John Philoponus, and Simplicius. With the closing of the philosophical schools in the sixth century the knowledge of Aristotle, except for fragments of the logical doctrine, almost disappeared in the west. It was preserved, however, by Arabian and Syrian scholars; from whom, with the revival of learning in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it passed again to western Europe and became in Thomas Aquinas the philosophical basis of Christian theology. For the next few centuries the prestige of Aristotle was immense; he was "the philosopher," "the master of those who know." With the rise of modern science his authority has greatly declined. Yet Aristotelianism is still a force in modern thought: in Neo-Scholasticism; in recent psychology, whose behavioristic tendencies are in part a revival of Aristotelian modes of thought; in the various forms of vitalism in contemporary biology; in the dynamism of such thinkers as Bergson; and in the more catholic naturalism which has succeeded the mechanistic materialism of the last century, and which, whether by appeal to a doctrine of levels or by emphasis on immanent teleology, seems to be striving along Aristotelian lines for a conception of nature broad enough to include the religious, moral and artistic consciousness. Finally, a very large part of our technical vocabulary, both in science and in philosophy, is but the translation into modern tongues of the terms used by Aristotle, and carries with it, for better or worse, the distinctions worked out in his subtle mind. -- G.R.M.

The question of whether the operations must be specified or merely conceivable for the proposition to have meaning (which is analogous to the constructibility problem in mathematical discussions) has occasioned considerable criticism, for there appeared to be a danger that important scientific propositions might be excluded as meaningless. To this and other problems of operationalism the logical positivists (or empiricists) have contributed formulary modifications and refinements. See Logical Empiricism. In spite of their frequent difference with regard to the empirical foundation of logic and mathematics, pragmatism has received some support from the strict logicians and mathematical philosophers. One of the most important instances historically was C. I. Lewis' paper "The Pragmatic Element in Knowledge" (University of California Publications in Philosophy, 1926). Here he stated 'that the truth of experience must always be relative to our chosen conceptual systems", and that our choice between conceptual systems "will be determined consciously or not, on pragmatic grounds".

The_trend ::: is the general direction of a market or of the price of a security. In technical analysis, trends are identified by trendlines that connect a series of highs or lows. Most traders trade in the same direction as a trend, while contrarians seek to identify reversals. Trends can also apply to interest rates, bond yields, and other markets where they're characterized by a long-term movement in price or volume.   BREAKING DOWN 'Trend'  Technical analysis was founded on the premise that security prices trend over time, which makes identifying the trend one of the most important elements of the practice. Traders can identify the trend using various forms of technical analysis, including both trendlines and technical indicators. For example, trendlines might show the direction of a trend while the relative strength index (RSI) is designed to show the strength of a trend at any given point in time. Many traders live by the mantra, "the trend is your friend," with the exception of contrarians that seek to identify reversals.  Trends may also be used by investors focused on fundamental analysis, which looks at changes in the revenue, earnings, or other business metrics. For example, fundamental analysts may look for trends in earnings per share and revenue growth. If earnings have grown for the past four quarters, this represents a positive trend. However, if earnings have declined for the past four quarters, it represents a negative trend. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/trend.asp

The Zohar was compiled by Rabbi Simeon Ben-Iochai, and completed by his son Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary Rabbi Abba. “But voluminous as is the work, and containing as it does the main points of the secret and oral tradition, it still does not embrace it all. It is well known that this venerable kabalist [Simeon] never imparted the most important points of his doctrine otherwise than orally, and to a very limited number of friends and disciples, including his only son. Therefore, without the final initiation into the Mercaba the study of the Kabala will be ever incomplete, . . . Since the death of Simeon Ben-Iochai this hidden doctrine has remained an inviolate secret for the outside worlds” (IU 2:348-9).

This new dictionary seeks to address the needs of this present age. For the great majority of scholars of Buddhism, who do not command all of the major Buddhist languages, this reference book provides a repository of many of the most important terms used across the traditions, and their rendering in several Buddhist languages. For the college professor who teaches "Introduction to Buddhism" every year, requiring one to venture beyond one's particular area of geographical and doctrinal expertise, it provides descriptions of many of the important figures and texts in the major traditions. For the student of Buddhism, whether inside or outside the classroom, it offers information on many fundamental doctrines and practices of the various traditions of the religion. This dictionary is based primarily on six Buddhist languages and their traditions: Sanskrit, PAli, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Also included, although appearing much less frequently, are terms and proper names in vernacular Burmese, Lao, Mongolian, Sinhalese, Thai, and Vietnamese. The majority of entries fall into three categories: the terminology of Buddhist doctrine and practice, the texts in which those teachings are set forth, and the persons (both human and divine) who wrote those texts or appear in their pages. In addition, there are entries on important places-including monasteries and sacred mountains-as well as on the major schools and sects of the various Buddhist traditions. The vast majority of the main entries are in their original language, although cross-references are sometimes provided to a common English rendering. Unlike many terminological dictionaries, which merely provide a brief listing of meanings with perhaps some of the equivalencies in various Buddhist languages, this work seeks to function as an encyclopedic dictionary. The main entries offer a short essay on the extended meaning and significance of the terms covered, typically in the range of two hundred to six hundred words, but sometimes substantially longer. To offer further assistance in understanding a term or tracing related concepts, an extensive set of internal cross-references (marked in small capital letters) guides the reader to related entries throughout the dictionary. But even with over a million words and five thousand entries, we constantly had to make difficult choices about what to include and how much to say. Given the long history and vast geographical scope of the Buddhist traditions, it is difficult to imagine any dictionary ever being truly comprehensive. Authors also write about what they know (or would like to know); so inevitably the dictionary reflects our own areas of scholarly expertise, academic interests, and judgments about what readers need to learn about the various Buddhist traditions.

This roster provides some of the most important numerical lists used in the Buddhist traditions. Generally, we include the equivalencies only in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese, since in most cases these will be adequate to trace the terms back to the relevant entries in the dictionary. In instances where there are several variations of a list, we seek to provide only one common form. In addition, the various languages often provide different interpretations of a particular term, making it difficult to provide a single English translation. For ease in tracing terms back to their main dictionary entries, the numeric elements in the foreign-language names of each list have not been provided; the exceptions are those lists in which numerals are included in the main dictionary entries (for example, dasabhumi).

Three senses of "Ockhamism" may be distinguished: Logical, indicating usage of the terminology and technique of logical analysis developed by Ockham in his Summa totius logicae; in particular, use of the concept of supposition (suppositio) in the significative analysis of terms. Epistemological, indicating the thesis that universality is attributable only to terms and propositions, and not to things as existing apart from discourse. Theological, indicating the thesis that no tneological doctrines, such as those of God's existence or of the immortality of the soul, are evident or demonstrable philosophically, so that religious doctrine rests solely on faith, without metaphysical or scientific support. It is in this sense that Luther is often called an Ockhamist.   Bibliography:   B. Geyer,   Ueberwegs Grundriss d. Gesch. d. Phil., Bd. II (11th ed., Berlin 1928), pp. 571-612 and 781-786; N. Abbagnano,   Guglielmo di Ockham (Lanciano, Italy, 1931); E. A. Moody,   The Logic of William of Ockham (N. Y. & London, 1935); F. Ehrle,   Peter von Candia (Muenster, 1925); G. Ritter,   Studien zur Spaetscholastik, I-II (Heidelberg, 1921-1922).     --E.A.M. Om, aum: (Skr.) Mystic, holy syllable as a symbol for the indefinable Absolute. See Aksara, Vac, Sabda. --K.F.L. Omniscience: In philosophy and theology it means the complete and perfect knowledge of God, of Himself and of all other beings, past, present, and future, or merely possible, as well as all their activities, real or possible, including the future free actions of human beings. --J.J.R. One: Philosophically, not a number but equivalent to unit, unity, individuality, in contradistinction from multiplicity and the mani-foldness of sensory experience. In metaphysics, the Supreme Idea (Plato), the absolute first principle (Neo-platonism), the universe (Parmenides), Being as such and divine in nature (Plotinus), God (Nicolaus Cusanus), the soul (Lotze). Religious philosophy and mysticism, beginning with Indian philosophy (s.v.), has favored the designation of the One for the metaphysical world-ground, the ultimate icility, the world-soul, the principle of the world conceived as reason, nous, or more personally. The One may be conceived as an independent whole or as a sum, as analytic or synthetic, as principle or ontologically. Except by mysticism, it is rarely declared a fact of sensory experience, while its transcendent or transcendental, abstract nature is stressed, e.g., in epistemology where the "I" or self is considered the unitary background of personal experience, the identity of self-consciousness, or the unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifoldness of ideas (Kant). --K.F.L. One-one: A relation R is one-many if for every y in the converse domain there is a unique x such that xRy. A relation R is many-one if for every x in the domain there is a unique y such that xRy. (See the article relation.) A relation is one-one, or one-to-one, if it is at the same time one-many and many-one. A one-one relation is said to be, or to determine, a one-to-one correspondence between its domain and its converse domain. --A.C. On-handedness: (Ger. Vorhandenheit) Things exist in the mode of thereness, lying- passively in a neutral space. A "deficient" form of a more basic relationship, termed at-handedness (Zuhandenheit). (Heidegger.) --H.H. Ontological argument: Name by which later authors, especially Kant, designate the alleged proof for God's existence devised by Anselm of Canterbury. Under the name of God, so the argument runs, everyone understands that greater than which nothing can be thought. Since anything being the greatest and lacking existence is less then the greatest having also existence, the former is not really the greater. The greatest, therefore, has to exist. Anselm has been reproached, already by his contemporary Gaunilo, for unduly passing from the field of logical to the field of ontological or existential reasoning. This criticism has been repeated by many authors, among them Aquinas. The argument has, however, been used, if in a somewhat modified form, by Duns Scotus, Descartes, and Leibniz. --R.A. Ontological Object: (Gr. onta, existing things + logos, science) The real or existing object of an act of knowledge as distinguished from the epistemological object. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ontologism: (Gr. on, being) In contrast to psychologism, is called any speculative system which starts philosophizing by positing absolute being, or deriving the existence of entities independently of experience merely on the basis of their being thought, or assuming that we have immediate and certain knowledge of the ground of being or God. Generally speaking any rationalistic, a priori metaphysical doctrine, specifically the philosophies of Rosmini-Serbati and Vincenzo Gioberti. As a philosophic method censored by skeptics and criticists alike, as a scholastic doctrine formerly strongly supported, revived in Italy and Belgium in the 19th century, but no longer countenanced. --K.F.L. Ontology: (Gr. on, being + logos, logic) The theory of being qua being. For Aristotle, the First Philosophy, the science of the essence of things. Introduced as a term into philosophy by Wolff. The science of fundamental principles, the doctrine of the categories. Ultimate philosophy; rational cosmology. Syn. with metaphysics. See Cosmology, First Principles, Metaphysics, Theology. --J.K.F. Operation: "(Lit. operari, to work) Any act, mental or physical, constituting a phase of the reflective process, and performed with a view to acquiring1 knowledge or information about a certain subject-nntter. --A.C.B.   In logic, see Operationism.   In philosophy of science, see Pragmatism, Scientific Empiricism. Operationism: The doctrine that the meaning of a concept is given by a set of operations.   1. The operational meaning of a term (word or symbol) is given by a semantical rule relating the term to some concrete process, object or event, or to a class of such processes, objectj or events.   2. Sentences formed by combining operationally defined terms into propositions are operationally meaningful when the assertions are testable by means of performable operations. Thus, under operational rules, terms have semantical significance, propositions have empirical significance.   Operationism makes explicit the distinction between formal (q.v.) and empirical sentences. Formal propositions are signs arranged according to syntactical rules but lacking operational reference. Such propositions, common in mathematics, logic and syntax, derive their sanction from convention, whereas an empirical proposition is acceptable (1) when its structure obeys syntactical rules and (2) when there exists a concrete procedure (a set of operations) for determining its truth or falsity (cf. Verification). Propositions purporting to be empirical are sometimes amenable to no operational test because they contain terms obeying no definite semantical rules. These sentences are sometimes called pseudo-propositions and are said to be operationally meaningless. They may, however, be 'meaningful" in other ways, e.g. emotionally or aesthetically (cf. Meaning).   Unlike a formal statement, the "truth" of an empirical sentence is never absolute and its operational confirmation serves only to increase the degree of its validity. Similarly, the semantical rule comprising the operational definition of a term has never absolute precision. Ordinarily a term denotes a class of operations and the precision of its definition depends upon how definite are the rules governing inclusion in the class.   The difference between Operationism and Logical Positivism (q.v.) is one of emphasis. Operationism's stress of empirical matters derives from the fact that it was first employed to purge physics of such concepts as absolute space and absolute time, when the theory of relativity had forced upon physicists the view that space and time are most profitably defined in terms of the operations by which they are measured. Although different methods of measuring length at first give rise to different concepts of length, wherever the equivalence of certain of these measures can be established by other operations, the concepts may legitimately be combined.   In psychology the operational criterion of meaningfulness is commonly associated with a behavioristic point of view. See Behaviorism. Since only those propositions which are testable by public and repeatable operations are admissible in science, the definition of such concepti as mind and sensation must rest upon observable aspects of the organism or its behavior. Operational psychology deals with experience only as it is indicated by the operation of differential behavior, including verbal report. Discriminations, or the concrete differential reactions of organisms to internal or external environmental states, are by some authors regarded as the most basic of all operations.   For a discussion of the role of operational definition in phvsics. see P. W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics, (New York, 1928) and The Nature of Physical Theory (Princeton, 1936). "The extension of operationism to psychology is discussed by C. C. Pratt in The Logic of Modem Psychology (New York. 1939.)   For a discussion and annotated bibliography relating to Operationism and Logical Positivism, see S. S. Stevens, Psychology and the Science of Science, Psychol. Bull., 36, 1939, 221-263. --S.S.S. Ophelimity: Noun derived from the Greek, ophelimos useful, employed by Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) in economics as the equivalent of utility, or the capacity to provide satisfaction. --J.J.R. Opinion: (Lat. opinio, from opinor, to think) An hypothesis or proposition entertained on rational grounds but concerning which doubt can reasonably exist. A belief. See Hypothesis, Certainty, Knowledge. --J.K.F- Opposition: (Lat. oppositus, pp. of oppono, to oppose) Positive actual contradiction. One of Aristotle's Post-predicaments. In logic any contrariety or contradiction, illustrated by the "Square of Opposition". Syn. with: conflict. See Logic, formal, § 4. --J.K.F. Optimism: (Lat. optimus, the best) The view inspired by wishful thinking, success, faith, or philosophic reflection, that the world as it exists is not so bad or even the best possible, life is good, and man's destiny is bright. Philosophically most persuasively propounded by Leibniz in his Theodicee, according to which God in his wisdom would have created a better world had he known or willed such a one to exist. Not even he could remove moral wrong and evil unless he destroyed the power of self-determination and hence the basis of morality. All systems of ethics that recognize a supreme good (Plato and many idealists), subscribe to the doctrines of progressivism (Turgot, Herder, Comte, and others), regard evil as a fragmentary view (Josiah Royce et al.) or illusory, or believe in indemnification (Henry David Thoreau) or melioration (Emerson), are inclined optimistically. Practically all theologies advocating a plan of creation and salvation, are optimistic though they make the good or the better dependent on moral effort, right thinking, or belief, promising it in a future existence. Metaphysical speculation is optimistic if it provides for perfection, evolution to something higher, more valuable, or makes room for harmonies or a teleology. See Pessimism. --K.F.L. Order: A class is said to be partially ordered by a dyadic relation R if it coincides with the field of R, and R is transitive and reflexive, and xRy and yRx never both hold when x and y are different. If in addition R is connected, the class is said to be ordered (or simply ordered) by R, and R is called an ordering relation.   Whitehcid and Russell apply the term serial relation to relations which are transitive, irreflexive, and connected (and, in consequence, also asymmetric). However, the use of serial relations in this sense, instead ordering relations as just defined, is awkward in connection with the notion of order for unit classes.   Examples: The relation not greater than among leal numbers is an ordering relation. The relation less than among real numbers is a serial relation. The real numbers are simply ordered by the former relation. In the algebra of classes (logic formal, § 7), the classes are partially ordered by the relation of class inclusion.   For explanation of the terminology used in making the above definitions, see the articles connexity, reflexivity, relation, symmetry, transitivity. --A.C. Order type: See relation-number. Ordinal number: A class b is well-ordered by a dyadic relation R if it is ordered by R (see order) and, for every class a such that a ⊂ b, there is a member x of a, such that xRy holds for every member y of a; and R is then called a well-ordering relation. The ordinal number of a class b well-ordered by a relation R, or of a well-ordering relation R, is defined to be the relation-number (q. v.) of R.   The ordinal numbers of finite classes (well-ordered by appropriate relations) are called finite ordinal numbers. These are 0, 1, 2, ... (to be distinguished, of course, from the finite cardinal numbers 0, 1, 2, . . .).   The first non-finite (transfinite or infinite) ordinal number is the ordinal number of the class of finite ordinal numbers, well-ordered in their natural order, 0, 1, 2, . . .; it is usually denoted by the small Greek letter omega. --A.C.   G. Cantor, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, translated and with an introduction by P. E. B. Jourdain, Chicago and London, 1915. (new ed. 1941); Whitehead and Russell, Princtpia Mathematica. vol. 3. Orexis: (Gr. orexis) Striving; desire; the conative aspect of mind, as distinguished from the cognitive and emotional (Aristotle). --G.R.M.. Organicism: A theory of biology that life consists in the organization or dynamic system of the organism. Opposed to mechanism and vitalism. --J.K.F. Organism: An individual animal or plant, biologically interpreted. A. N. Whitehead uses the term to include also physical bodies and to signify anything material spreading through space and enduring in time. --R.B.W. Organismic Psychology: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, an instrument) A system of theoretical psychology which construes the structure of the mind in organic rather than atomistic terms. See Gestalt Psychology; Psychological Atomism. --L.W. Organization: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, work) A structured whole. The systematic unity of parts in a purposive whole. A dynamic system. Order in something actual. --J.K.F. Organon: (Gr. organon) The title traditionally given to the body of Aristotle's logical treatises. The designation appears to have originated among the Peripatetics after Aristotle's time, and expresses their view that logic is not a part of philosophy (as the Stoics maintained) but rather the instrument (organon) of philosophical inquiry. See Aristotelianism. --G.R.M.   In Kant. A system of principles by which pure knowledge may be acquired and established.   Cf. Fr. Bacon's Novum Organum. --O.F.K. Oriental Philosophy: A general designation used loosely to cover philosophic tradition exclusive of that grown on Greek soil and including the beginnings of philosophical speculation in Egypt, Arabia, Iran, India, and China, the elaborate systems of India, Greater India, China, and Japan, and sometimes also the religion-bound thought of all these countries with that of the complex cultures of Asia Minor, extending far into antiquity. Oriental philosophy, though by no means presenting a homogeneous picture, nevertheless shares one characteristic, i.e., the practical outlook on life (ethics linked with metaphysics) and the absence of clear-cut distinctions between pure speculation and religious motivation, and on lower levels between folklore, folk-etymology, practical wisdom, pre-scientiiic speculation, even magic, and flashes of philosophic insight. Bonds with Western, particularly Greek philosophy have no doubt existed even in ancient times. Mutual influences have often been conjectured on the basis of striking similarities, but their scientific establishment is often difficult or even impossible. Comparative philosophy (see especially the work of Masson-Oursel) provides a useful method. Yet a thorough treatment of Oriental Philosophy is possible only when the many languages in which it is deposited have been more thoroughly studied, the psychological and historical elements involved in the various cultures better investigated, and translations of the relevant documents prepared not merely from a philological point of view or out of missionary zeal, but by competent philosophers who also have some linguistic training. Much has been accomplished in this direction in Indian and Chinese Philosophy (q.v.). A great deal remains to be done however before a definitive history of Oriental Philosophy may be written. See also Arabian, and Persian Philosophy. --K.F.L. Origen: (185-254) The principal founder of Christian theology who tried to enrich the ecclesiastic thought of his day by reconciling it with the treasures of Greek philosophy. Cf. Migne PL. --R.B.W. Ormazd: (New Persian) Same as Ahura Mazdah (q.v.), the good principle in Zoroastrianism, and opposed to Ahriman (q.v.). --K.F.L. Orphic Literature: The mystic writings, extant only in fragments, of a Greek religious-philosophical movement of the 6th century B.C., allegedly started by the mythical Orpheus. In their mysteries, in which mythology and rational thinking mingled, the Orphics concerned themselves with cosmogony, theogony, man's original creation and his destiny after death which they sought to influence to the better by pure living and austerity. They taught a symbolism in which, e.g., the relationship of the One to the many was clearly enunciated, and believed in the soul as involved in reincarnation. Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato were influenced by them. --K.F.L. Ortega y Gasset, Jose: Born in Madrid, May 9, 1883. At present in Buenos Aires, Argentine. Son of Ortega y Munillo, the famous Spanish journalist. Studied at the College of Jesuits in Miraflores and at the Central University of Madrid. In the latter he presented his Doctor's dissertation, El Milenario, in 1904, thereby obtaining his Ph.D. degree. After studies in Leipzig, Berlin, Marburg, under the special influence of Hermann Cohen, the great exponent of Kant, who taught him the love for the scientific method and awoke in him the interest in educational philosophy, Ortega came to Spain where, after the death of Nicolas Salmeron, he occupied the professorship of metaphysics at the Central University of Madrid. The following may be considered the most important works of Ortega y Gasset:     Meditaciones del Quijote, 1914;   El Espectador, I-VIII, 1916-1935;   El Tema de Nuestro Tiempo, 1921;   España Invertebrada, 1922;   Kant, 1924;   La Deshumanizacion del Arte, 1925;   Espiritu de la Letra, 1927;   La Rebelion de las Masas, 1929;   Goethe desde Adentio, 1934;   Estudios sobre el Amor, 1939;   Ensimismamiento y Alteracion, 1939;   El Libro de las Misiones, 1940;   Ideas y Creencias, 1940;     and others.   Although brought up in the Marburg school of thought, Ortega is not exactly a neo-Kantian. At the basis of his Weltanschauung one finds a denial of the fundamental presuppositions which characterized European Rationalism. It is life and not thought which is primary. Things have a sense and a value which must be affirmed independently. Things, however, are to be conceived as the totality of situations which constitute the circumstances of a man's life. Hence, Ortega's first philosophical principle: "I am myself plus my circumstances". Life as a problem, however, is but one of the poles of his formula. Reason is the other. The two together function, not by dialectical opposition, but by necessary coexistence. Life, according to Ortega, does not consist in being, but rather, in coming to be, and as such it is of the nature of direction, program building, purpose to be achieved, value to be realized. In this sense the future as a time dimension acquires new dignity, and even the present and the past become articulate and meaning-full only in relation to the future. Even History demands a new point of departure and becomes militant with new visions. --J.A.F. Orthodoxy: Beliefs which are declared by a group to be true and normative. Heresy is a departure from and relative to a given orthodoxy. --V.S. Orthos Logos: See Right Reason. Ostensible Object: (Lat. ostendere, to show) The object envisaged by cognitive act irrespective of its actual existence. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ostensive: (Lat. ostendere, to show) Property of a concept or predicate by virtue of which it refers to and is clarified by reference to its instances. --A.C.B. Ostwald, Wilhelm: (1853-1932) German chemist. Winner of the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1909. In Die Uberwindung des wissenschaftlichen Materialistmus and in Naturphilosophie, his two best known works in the field of philosophy, he advocates a dynamic theory in opposition to materialism and mechanism. All properties of matter, and the psychic as well, are special forms of energy. --L.E.D. Oupnekhat: Anquetil Duperron's Latin translation of the Persian translation of 50 Upanishads (q.v.), a work praised by Schopenhauer as giving him complete consolation. --K.F.L. Outness: A term employed by Berkeley to express the experience of externality, that is the ideas of space and things placed at a distance. Hume used it in the sense of distance Hamilton understood it as the state of being outside of consciousness in a really existing world of material things. --J.J.R. Overindividual: Term used by H. Münsterberg to translate the German überindividuell. The term is applied to any cognitive or value object which transcends the individual subject. --L.W. P

T. L. Heath, The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, translated from the text of Heiberg, with introduction and commentary, 3 vols., Cambridge, England, 1908. Gerbert of Aurillac: (Pope Sylvester II, died 1003) Was one of the greatest scholars of the 10th century. He studied at Aurillac with Odo of Cluny, learned something of Arabian science during three years spent in Spain. He taught at the school of Rheims, became Abbot of Bobbio (982), Archbishop of Rheims (991), Archbishop of Ravenna (998), Pope in 999. A master of the seven liberal aits, he excelled in his knowledge of the quadrivium, i.e. logic, math., astron. and music. His works, the most important of which are on mathematics, are printed in PL 139, 57-338. -- V.J.B.

trematodea ::: n. pl. --> An extensive order of parasitic worms. They are found in the internal cavities of animals belonging to all classes. Many species are found, also, on the gills and skin of fishes. A few species are parasitic on man, and some, of which the fluke is the most important, are injurious parasites of domestic animals. The trematodes usually have a flattened body covered with a chitinous skin, and are furnished with two or more suckers for adhesion. Most of the species are hermaphrodite. Called also Trematoda, and Trematoidea. See Fluke,

Unamuno y Jugo, Miguel de: Spanish Professor and writer. Born at Bilbao, Spain, September 29, 1864. Died 1936. First and secondary education in Bilbao. Philosophical studies and higher learning at the Central University of Madrid since 1880. Private instructor in Bilbao, 1884-1891. Professor of Greek language and literature at the University of Salamanca since 1891. President of the University of Salamanca and at the same time Professor of the History of the Spanish Language, in 1901. Madariaga considers him "The most important literary figure of Spain". If he does not embody, at least it may be asserted that Unamuno very well symbolizes the character of Spain. His conflict between faith and reason, life and thought, culture and civilization, depicts for us a clear picture of the Spanish cultural crisis.

Unix "operating system" /yoo'niks/ (Or "UNIX", in the authors' words, "A weak pun on Multics") Plural "Unices". An interactive {time-sharing} {operating system} invented in 1969 by {Ken Thompson} after {Bell Labs} left the {Multics} project, originally so he could play games on his scavenged {PDP-7}. {Dennis Ritchie}, the inventor of {C}, is considered a co-author of the system. The turning point in Unix's history came when it was reimplemented almost entirely in C during 1972 - 1974, making it the first {source-portable} OS. Unix subsequently underwent mutations and expansions at the hands of many different people, resulting in a uniquely flexible and {developer}-friendly environment. By 1991, Unix had become the most widely used {multi-user} general-purpose operating system in the world. Many people consider this the most important victory yet of hackerdom over industry opposition (but see {Unix weenie} and {Unix conspiracy} for an opposing point of view). Unix is now offered by many manufacturers and is the subject of an international standardisation effort [called?]. Unix-like operating systems include {AIX}, {A/UX}, {BSD}, {Debian}, {FreeBSD}, {GNU}, {HP-UX}, {Linux}, {NetBSD}, {NEXTSTEP}, {OpenBSD}, {OPENSTEP}, {OSF}, {POSIX}, {RISCiX}, {Solaris}, {SunOS}, {System V}, {Ultrix}, {USG Unix}, {Version 7}, {Xenix}. "Unix" or "UNIX"? Both seem roughly equally popular, perhaps with a historical bias toward the latter. "UNIX" is a registered trademark of {The Open Group}, however, since it is a name and not an acronym, "Unix" has been adopted in this dictionary except where a larger name includes it in upper case. Since the OS is {case-sensitive} and exists in many different versions, it is fitting that its name should reflect this. {The UNIX Reference Desk (http://geek-girl.com/unix.html)}. {Spanish fire extinguisher (ftp://linux.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de/pub/linux/people/okir/unix_flame.gif)}. [{Jargon File}] (2001-05-14)

Unix ::: (operating system) /yoo'niks/ (Or UNIX, in the authors' words, A weak pun on Multics) Plural Unices. An interactive time-sharing operating system originally so he could play games on his scavenged PDP-7. Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of C, is considered a co-author of the system.The turning point in Unix's history came when it was reimplemented almost entirely in C during 1972 - 1974, making it the first source-portable OS. Unix subsequently underwent mutations and expansions at the hands of many different people, resulting in a uniquely flexible and developer-friendly environment.By 1991, Unix had become the most widely used multi-user general-purpose operating system in the world. Many people consider this the most important victory yet of hackerdom over industry opposition (but see Unix weenie and Unix conspiracy for an opposing point of view).Unix is now offered by many manufacturers and is the subject of an international standardisation effort [called?]. Unix-like operating systems include AIX, A/UX, OSF, POSIX, RISCiX, Solaris, SunOS, System V, Ultrix, USG Unix, Version 7, Xenix.Unix or UNIX? Both seem roughly equally popular, perhaps with a historical bias toward the latter. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group, case-sensitive and exists in many different versions, it is fitting that its name should reflect this. . .[Jargon File](2001-05-14)

Vajrayoginī. (T. Rdo rje rnal 'byor ma). The most important of the dĀKInĪ in the VAJRAYĀNA, associated especially with the "mother tantras" (MĀTṚTANTRA) of the ANUTTARAYOGA class. She is also the most important of the female YI DAM. Her visualization is central to many tantric SĀDHANAs, especially in the practice of GURUYOGA, in which the meditator imagines himself or herself in the form of Vajrayoginī in order to receive the blessings of the GURU. She is also visualized in GCOD and GTUM MO practice. Her worship seems to originate with the CAKRASAMVARATANTRA and is popular in all sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrayoginī plays a special role in the "six yogas of NĀROPA" (NĀ RO CHOS DRUG), where she is known as Nā ro mkha' spyod ma (Kachoma). She is closely associated with VAJRAVĀRĀHĪ, the consort of CAKRASAMVARA. In her most common form, she stands in the ĀLĪdHA posture, holding a KAtVĀnGA and a skull cup.

Vallabhacharya was born in the forest of Champaranya in 1479. At an early age he began traveling to propagate his doctrines, and at the court of Krishna-deva, king of Vijaya-nagara, succeeded so well in his controversies with the Saivas, according to the reports of his followers, that many Vaishnavas chose him as their chief. He then went to other parts of India, and finally settled at Benares, where he composed 17 works, the most important of which were commentaries on the Vedanta- and Mimansa-Sutras and another on the Bhagavata-Purana, on which this sect seems in the main to base their doctrines. He left 84 disciples. He taught a non-ascetic view of religion and deprecated all self-mortification as dishonoring the body which contained a portion of the supreme spirit. His emphasis on human affections and emotions seems at times to fringe closely the frontiers of licentiousness.

Vessantara. (S. Visvantara/VisvaMtara; T. Thams cad sgrol; C. Xudana; J. Shudainu/Shudaina; K. Sudaena 須大拏). Pāli name of a prince who is the subject of the most famous of all JĀTAKA tales; he was the BODHISATTVA's final existence before he took rebirth in TUsITA heaven, where he awaited the moment when he would descend into Queen MĀYĀ's womb to be born as Prince SIDDHĀRTHA and eventually become GAUTAMA Buddha. During his lifetime as Prince Vessantara, the bodhisattva (P. bodhisatta) fulfilled the perfection (P. pāramī; S. PĀRAMITĀ) of generosity (DĀNA; see also DĀNAPĀRAMITĀ). The story is found in Sanskrit in Āryasura's JĀTAKAMĀLĀ and Ksemendra's Avadānakalpalatā, with the same main features as in the Pāli version. The story enjoys its greatest popularity in Southeast Asia, so the Pāli version is described here. ¶ The bodhisattva was born as the crown prince of Sivirattha, the son of King SaNjaya and Queen Phusatī of the kingdom of Jetuttara. On the day of his birth, a white elephant named Paccaya was also born, who had the power to make rain. When Vessantara was sixteen, he married a maiden named Maddī, with whom he had a son and a daughter, Jāli and Kanhajinā. Once, when Kalinga was suffering a severe drought, brāhmanas from that kingdom requested that Vessantara give them his white elephant to alleviate their plight. Vessantara complied, handing over to them his elephant along with its accessories. The citizens of Jetuttara were outraged that he should deprive his own kingdom of such a treasure and demanded his banishment to the distant mountain of Vankagiri. His father, King SaNjaya, consented and ordered Vessantara to leave via the road frequented by highwaymen. Before his departure, Vessantara held a great almsgiving, in which he distributed seven hundred of every type of thing. Maddī insisted that she and her children accompany the prince, and they were transported out of the city on a grand carriage pulled by four horses. Four brāhmanas begged for his horses, which he gave. Gods then pulled his carriage until a brāhmana begged for his carriage. Thereafter, they traveled on foot. Along the way crowds gathered, some even offering their kingdoms for him to rule, so famous was he for his generosity. At Vankagiri, they lived in two hermitages, one for Vessantara and the other for his wife and children. These had been constructed for them by Vissakamma, architect of the gods. There, they passed four months until one day an old brāhmana named Jujaka arrived and asked for Jāli and Kanhajinā as slaves. Vessantara expected this to occur, so he sent his wife on an errand so that she would not be distressed at the sight of him giving their children away. Jujaka was cruel, and the children ran away to their father, only to be returned so that Vessantara's generosity could be perfected. When Maddī returned, she fainted at the news. Then, Sakka (sAKRA), king of the gods, assumed the form of a brāhmana and asked for Maddī; Vessantara gave his wife to the brāhmana. The earth quaked at the gift. Sakka immediately revealed his identity and returned Maddī, granting Vessantara eight boons. In the meantime, Jujaka, the cruel brāhmana, traveled to Jetuttara, where King SaNjaya bought the children for a great amount of treasure, including a seven-storied palace. Jujaka, however, died of overeating and left no heirs, so the treasure was returned to the king. Meanwhile, the white elephant was returned because the kingdom of Kalinga could not maintain him. A grand entourage was sent to Vankagiri to fetch Vessantara and Maddī, and when they returned amid great celebration they were crowned king and queen of Sivirattha. In order that Vessantara would be able to satisfy all who came for gifts, Sakka rained down jewels waist deep on the palace. When Vessantara died, he was born as a god in tusita heaven, where he awaited his last rebirth as Siddhattha Gotama, when he would become a buddha. ¶ As a depiction of the virtue of dāna, the story of Vessantara is one of the most important Buddhist tales in Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia and is depicted on murals throughout the region. Thai retellings of the Vessantara-Jātaka, known also as the Mahāchat, or "Great Jātaka," are found in the many Thai dialects and consist of thirteen chapters. The story is popular in Thailand's north and especially in the northeast, where virtually every monastery (excluding forest monasteries) holds a festival known as the Bun Phra Wet, usually in February or March, at which the entire story is recited in one day and one night. Laypeople assist in decorating their local monastery with trunks and branches of banana trees to represent the forest to which Vessantara was banished after giving away his kingdom's auspicious elephant. They also present offerings of flowers, hanging decorations, balls of glutinous rice, and money. The festival includes, among other things, a procession to the monastery that includes local women carrying long horizontal cloth banners on which the Vessantara story is painted. The merit earned by participating in the festival is linked to two beliefs: (1) that the participant will be reborn at the time of the future buddha, MAITREYA, known in Thai as Phra Si Ariya Mettrai (P. Ariya Metteyya), and (2) that the community, which remains primarily agricultural, will be blessed with sufficient rainfall.

Vimalaprabhā. (T. Dri med 'od). In Sanskrit, "Stainless Light," the most important commentary on the KĀLACAKRATANTRA. It is traditionally attributed to Pundarīka, one of the kings of sAMBHALA.

Vinayasutra. (T. 'Dul ba'i mdo). In Sanskrit, "Discourse on Discipline"; a work on the monastic code by the Indian master GUnAPRABHA, who is dated between the fifth and seventh century CE. Despite its title, the work is not a SuTRA (in the sense of a discourse ascribed to the Buddha), but instead is an authored work composed of individual aphoristic statements (sutras). The text offers a summary or condensation of the massive MuLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA. At approximately one quarter the length of this massive vinaya collection, Gunaprabha's abridgment seems to have functioned as a kind of primer on the monastic code, omitting lengthy passages of scripture and providing the code of conduct to which monks were expected to subscribe. In this sense, the text is an important work for determining what monastic practice may actually have been like in medieval India. The Vinayasutra became the most important vinaya text for Tibetan Buddhism, being studied in all of the major sects. In the DGE LUGS, it is one of the five books (GZHUNG LNGA) that served as the basis of the monastic curriculum. The detailed commentaries on the Vinayasutra by the Pāla dynasty writer Dharmamitra (early ninth century) and the BKA' GDAM PA master Tsho sna ba Shes rab bzang po's (b. thirteenth century) were widely studied.

nā ::: a variety of lute, the vīnā is one of the most important musical instruments of India, often considered as sacred. Contemporary designs have four playing strings and three drone strings. The body is generally carved from wood, and the upper removable resonator is either carved or made from a gourd.

Water of Life The Book of Dzyan says that light is cold flame, flame is fire, and fire produces heat, which yields the water of life in the great mother; Blavatsky explained that all these are, on our plane, the progeny of electricity — which is perhaps the most important physical manifestation of the cosmic jiva or life, emanating from fohat, or vice versa.

Wat That Luang. In Lao, "Monastery of the Royal STuPA"; located in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, it is one of the most important Buddhist sites in Laos. According to legend, the original monastery was founded by monks sent by AsOKA in the third century BCE. Relics from the early twelfth century have been uncovered, although these may derive instead from a site in modern-day northern Thailand. The prestige of That Luang may have been enhanced due to its proximity to earlier Buddhist sites. The present monastery was constructed on a small hill south of the city in 1818 during the reign of King Manthaturat (r. 1817-1836). It is said to have been built partially from branches of a BODHI TREE located near Wat Keo Fa. The large bronze and gilded buddha in the nave was transferred from the now defunct Wat Aham Mungkhun, located a short distance from That Luang. That Luang has long been one of the important ritual sites in Laos for Buddhist, folk, and royal ceremonials. There are two large STuPAs on the grounds. The golden funerary stupa in front of the main hall contains the ashes of the popular and last crowned Laotian king, Sisavang Vong (r. 1904-1959). The grand stupa, which towers over the rear of the main hall, dates from 1818 and is said to contain relics (DHĀTU; sARĪRA) of the Buddha. The wat also contains a number of smaller stupas that contain ashes of kings, other members of the royal family, and a variety of other dignitaries. The wat has one of Vientiane's larger communities of monks and novices.

Wesak. (S. Vaisākha; P. Vesākha; T. Sa ga zla ba). A modern rendering of Vesākha, the Pāli name for the fourth lunar month of the traditional Indian calendar (thus corresponding to April-May in the solar calendar); by extension, the term refers to the important event(s) in the life of the Buddha that occurred during that month and to their annual commemoration. According to the THERAVĀDA and Tibetan traditions, it was on the full moon of the fourth lunar month that the Buddha was born, was enlightened, and passed into PARINIRVĀnA. This date is therefore the most important in the Buddhist calendar of many traditions. Wesak is widely celebrated across much of the Buddhist world, but especially in Southeast Asia, where it is considered an especially important time to perform meritorious deeds. According to many East Asian traditions, the full moon of the fourth lunar month marks only the date of the Buddha's birth, with his enlightenment and passage into PARINIRVĀnA occurring in the twelfth and eleventh lunar months, respectively; Wesak is therefore not nearly as important in the East Asian calendar as it is in Southeast Asia and Tibet.

While the Romans produced critics and skeptics who attempted to throw doubt on the nature and reliability of these Sibylline Oracles, the greatest men of the Roman State held them in reverence, and they were most carefully guarded through the centuries of Roman history as being among the most important and sacred treasures of the royal, republican, and imperial archives. The Sibylline Oracles or Books were consulted on every occasion of important crisis which confronted the Roman State, and it would appear from existing records that when so consulted, the results following always accrued to the benefit and prosperity of the government and people.

widgeon ::: n. --> Any one of several species of fresh-water ducks, especially those belonging to the subgenus Mareca, of the genus Anas. The common European widgeon (Anas penelope) and the American widgeon (A. Americana) are the most important species. The latter is called also baldhead, baldpate, baldface, baldcrown, smoking duck, wheat, duck, and whitebelly.

wu gong'an. (J. mukoan; K. mu kongan 無公案). In Chinese, "the case 'no'"; an influential CHAN case or precedent (GONG'AN) associated with the Tang-dynasty Chan master ZHAOZHOU CONGSHEN (778-897). In this exchange, once a student came to Zhaozhou and asked, "Does a dog have the buddha-nature (FOXING), or not?" Zhaozhou answered, "No" (lit., "It does not have it"). The complete exchange from which this gong'an is drawn continues: "Everything has buddha-nature, from the buddhas above, to the ants below. Why wouldn't a dog have it?" Zhaozhou replied: "Because he has the nature of karmically conditioned consciousness." This response seems to be associated with Chan debates concerning the Sinitic Buddhist doctrine of the "buddha-nature of the insentient" (wuqing foxing), which presumed that all insentient things, including rocks and tiles, trees, and grass, were also endowed with the buddha-nature; thus, if even rocks have the buddha-nature, why not dogs? Since the answer to the student's question should unequivocally be "Yes, a dog does have the buddha-nature," Zhaozhou's enigmatic response, which Wumen calls a "checkpoint of the patriarchs," seems to challenge one of the foundational beliefs of East Asian Buddhism; in so doing, it engenders a question in the student's mind, which will help to foster inquiry and ultimately a sense of doubt (YIQING). This answer "WU" ("no") became a popular meditative topic (HUATOU) in the Chan meditation practice of "questioning meditation" (KANHUA CHAN) and is one of the most important gong'ans used in kanhua Chan training, especially in the Chinese LINJI ZONG and Japanese RINZAISHu lineages, as well as in the Korean CHOGYE CHONG. The wu gong'an is the first case collected in the gong'an anthology WUMEN GUAN ("Gateless Checkpoint"), and its use in kanhua practice was popularized by the Chinese Linji teacher DAHUI ZONGGAO (1089-1163). See also GOUZI WU FOXING.

Yamāntaka. (T. Gshin rje gshed; C. Yanmandejia/Daweide mingwang; J. Enmantokuka/Daiitoku myoo; K. Yommandokka/Taewidok myongwang 焰曼德迦/大威德明王). In Sanskrit, "Destroyer of Death" (lit. "he who brings an end (antaka) to death (yama)"), closely associated with BHAIRAVA ("The Frightening One") and VAJRABHAIRAVA; one of the most important tantric deities. In Tibetan Buddhism, he was one of the three primary YI DAM of the DGE LUGS sect (together with GUHYASAMĀJA and CAKRASAMVARA). Yamāntaka is considered to be a fully enlightened buddha, who appears always in a wrathful form. He is depicted both with and without a consort; the solitary depiction, called "sole hero" (ekavīra), is particularly popular. Bhairava also appears in the Hindu tantric pantheon as a wrathful manifestation of the god siva. According to Buddhist mythology, MANJUsRĪ, the bodhisattva of wisdom, took the form of the terrifying bull-headed deity in order to destroy the Lord of Death (YAMA) who was ravaging the country; hence the epithet Yamāntaka (Destroyer of Death). Yamāntaka has nine heads, thirty-four arms, and sixteen legs, each arm holding a different weapon or frightening object, and each foot trampling a different being. Each of these receives detailed symbolic interpretation in ritual and meditation texts associated with Yamāntaka. Thus, his two horns are said to represent the two truths (SATYADVAYA) of MADHYAMAKA philosophy: ultimate truth (PARAMĀRTHASATYA) and conventional truth (SAMVṚTISATYA). His nine heads represent the nine categories (NAVAnGA[PĀVACANA]) of Buddhist scriptures. His thirty-four arms, together with his body, speech, and mind, symbolize the thirty-seven "factors pertaining to awakening" (BODHIPĀKsIKADHARMA). His sixteen legs symbolize the sixteen emptinesses (suNYATĀ). The humans and animals that he tramples with his right foot represent the attainment of the eight accomplishments, viz., supernatural abilities acquired through tantric practice, including the ability to fly, to become invisible, and travel underground. The birds that he tramples with his left foot represent the attainment of the eight powers, another set of magical abilities, including the ability to travel anywhere in an instant and the power to create emanations. His erect phallus represents great bliss, his nakedness means that he is not covered up with obstacles, and his hair standing on end symbolizes his passage beyond all sorrow (DUḤKHA). The Yamāntaka root tantras are the Sarvatathāgatakāyavāgcittakṛsnayamāritantra ("Body, Speech, and Mind of All Tathāgatas: Black Enemy of Death Tantra") in eighteen chapters; Sarvatathāgatakāyavāgcittaraktayamāritantra ("Red Enemy of Death Tantra," in large part, a different version of the same tantra in nineteen chapters); and the important Kṛsnayamārimukhatantra, also called the "Three Summaries Tantra" (T. Rgyud sdom gsum) because it has no chapters. Also included in the cycle is the Yamāntakakrodhavijayatantra ("Victorious Wrathful Yamāntaka Tantra"), a CARYĀTANTRA. Based on these three works, in Tibet, the three varieties of Yamāntaka are called the "red, black, and the frightening" (T. dmar nag 'jigs gsum) derived from Raktayamāri (Red Enemy of Death), Kṛsnayamāri (Black Enemy of Death), and Vajrabhairava.

Yiqiejing yinyi. (J. Issaikyo ongi; K. Ilch'egyong ŭmŭi 一切經音義). In Chinese, "Pronunciation and Meaning of All the Scriptures"; a specialized Chinese glossary of Buddhist technical terminology. As more and more Indian and Central Asian texts were being translated into Chinese, the use of Sanskrit and Middle Indic transcriptions and technical vocabulary increased, leading to the need for comprehensive glossaries of these abstruse terms. Because of the polysemous and sacred character of such Buddhist doctrinal concepts as BODHI, NIRVĀnA, and PRAJNĀ, many Chinese translators also preferred to transcribe rather than translate such crucial terms, so as not to limit their semantic range to a single Chinese meaning. The Indian pronunciations of proper names were also commonly retained by Chinese translators. Finally, the spiritual efficacy thought to be inherent in the spoken sounds of Buddhist spells (MANTRA) and codes (DHĀRAnĪ) compelled the translators to preserve as closely as possible in Chinese the pronunciation of the Sanskrit or Middle Indic original. By the sixth century, the plethora of different transcriptions used for the same Sanskrit Buddhist terms led to attempts to standardize the Chinese transcriptions of Sanskrit words, and to clarify the obscure Sinographs and compounds used in Chinese translations of Buddhist texts. This material was compiled in various Buddhist "pronunciation and meaning" (yinyi) lexicons, the earliest of which was the twenty-five-roll Yiqiejing yinyi compiled by the monk Xuanying (fl. c. 645-656). Xuanying, a member of the translation bureau organized in the Chinese capital of Chang'an by the renowned Chinese pilgrim, translator, and Sanskritist XUANZANG (600/602-664), compiled his anthology in 649 from 454 of the most important MAHĀYĀNA, sRĀVAKAYĀNA, VINAYA, and sĀSTRA materials, probably as a primer for members of Xuanzang's translation team. His work is arranged by individual scripture, and includes a roll-by-roll listing and discussion of the problematic terms encountered in each section of the text. For the more obscure Sinographs, the entry provides the fanqie (a Chinese phonetic analysis that uses paired Sinographs to indicate the initial and final sounds of the target character), the Chinese translation, and the corrected transcription of the Sanskrit, according to the phonologically sophisticated transcription system developed by Xuanzang. Xuanying's compendium is similar in approach to its predecessor in the secular field, the Jingdian shiwen, compiled during the Tang dynasty in thirty rolls by Lu Deming (c. 550-630). The monk Huilin (783-807) subsequently incorporated all of Xuanying's terms and commentary into an expanded glossary that included difficult terms from more than 1,300 scriptures; Huilin's expansion becomes the definitive glossary used within the tradition. Still another yinyi was compiled later during the Liao dynasty by the monk Xilin (d.u.). In addition to their value in establishing the Chinese interpretation of Buddhist technical terms, these "pronunciation and meaning" glossaries also serve as important sources for studying the Chinese phonology of their times.

Yongningsi. (J. Eineiji; K. Yongnyongsa 永寧寺). In Chinese, "Eternal Peace monastery"; one of the most important monasteries in the Northern Wei capital of Luoyang. After the Wei rulers moved the Chinese capital to Luoyang, Empress Dowager Ling, the birth mother of Emperor Xiao Mingdi (r. 515-528), began construction of Yongningsi in 516. According to the LUOYANG QIELAN JI, Yongningsi was a grand complex that could house more than a thousand monks and was located to the west of the imperial highway and south of the Changhe gate. In the northern precinct of the monastery was a buddha hall, which housed various golden images, and to the south, a triple-gated tower more than two hundred feet in height. A nine-story pagoda that rose a thousand feet supported a tall golden pole with golden disks to collect the dew. Golden bells were also hung from the pagoda. Since it overlooked the palace, only Emperor Xiao Mingdi and the Empress Dowager were allowed to climb the pagoda to gaze at the entire capital. All the scriptures and paintings from foreign countries available at the time are said to have been stored at the monastery. The eminent translator BODHIRUCI also translated many scriptures while in residence at Yongningsi. The monastery was devastated by a fire and was left in ruins after the capital was moved again to Ye. Several restorations were made during the Sui and Tang dynasties, but the monastery remains in ruins today.

zulus ::: n. pl. --> The most important tribe belonging to the Kaffir race. They inhabit a region on the southeast coast of Africa, but formerly occupied a much more extensive country. They are noted for their warlike disposition, courage, and military skill.



QUOTES [37 / 37 - 1500 / 5360]


KEYS (10k)

   11 The Mother
   4 Sri Aurobindo
   3 Plato
   2 Adyashanti
   1 Zig Ziglar
   1 Wikipedia
   1 Tolstoi
   1 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
   1 Stephen King
   1 Socrates
   1 Shunryu Suzuki
   1 Rupert Spira
   1 Peter J Carroll
   1 Meister
   1 Leo Tolstoy
   1 Kobe Bryant
   1 Kant
   1 John Wooden
   1 John Wayne
   1 Charles F Haanel
   1 Anthony Robbins

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

   16 Anonymous
   15 Paulo Coelho
   15 Haruki Murakami
   10 Stephen King
   9 Plato
   8 Leo Tolstoy
   7 Warren Buffett
   7 Stephen Covey
   7 Albert Einstein
   6 The Mother
   6 Robert T Kiyosaki
   6 John C Maxwell
   6 Dalai Lama
   5 W Edwards Deming
   5 Timothy Ferriss
   5 Hillary Clinton
   5 A W Tozer
   5 Anthony Doerr
   4 Vladimir Lenin
   4 Tony Robbins

1:The most important hour is always the present. ~ Meister,
2:Next to love, balance is the most important thing." ~ John Wooden,
3:The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~ Plato,
4:The beginning is the most important part of the work.
   ~ Plato,
5:The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
6:The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet." ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
7:To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous." ~ Plato,
8:The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do." ~ Kobe Bryant,
9:One of the most important precepts of wisdom is to know oneself. ~ Socrates, the Eternal Wisdom
10:Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.
   ~ Zig Ziglar,
11:Consider the Divine Life as the most important thing to obtain.
   ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [7],
12:What is the most important moment in life?

   The present moment. For the past no longer exists and the future does not yet exist.
   ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,
13:But the most important thing for purification of the heart is an absolute sincerity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III, The Danger of the Ego and the Need of Purification,
14:Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." ~ John Wayne,
15:The discovery that peace, happiness, and love are ever-present within our own Being, and completely available at every moment of experience, under all conditions, is the most important discovery that anyone can make. ~ Rupert Spira,
16:The observations and reckonings of astronomers have taught us many surprising things, but the most important result of their studies is, undoubtedly, that they reveal to us the abyss of our ignorance. ~ Kant, the Eternal Wisdom
17:When you begin to become conscious, more aware, when your eyes begin to open, the first thing you see is how deluded you are and how much you're holding onto that which makes you suffer. This is, in many ways, the most important step: Are you willing to be aware? ~ Adyashanti,
18:Questions bring us closer to that experience, though they are often paradoxical: when we first ask them, the immediate answer is a conditioned response. To dig deeply into these questions, to look deep inside oneself, is its own spiritual practice. What is the most important thing? ~ Adyashanti,
19:To do yoga, one of the most important things to achieve is to get rid of all attachment to the past. Let the past be past and concentrate only on the progress you want to make and the surrender to the Divine you have to achieve. My blessings and help are always with you. With love. 10 January 1967 ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,
20:A sage was asked, "What is the most important work? who is the man the most important in life ?" The sage replied, The most important work is to love all men, because that is the life-work of each man. The most important man is the one with whom you have to do at this moment, because you can never know whether you will have to do with another. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom
21:All visions have a significance of one kind or another. This power of vision is very important for the Yoga and should not be rejected although it is not the most important thing-for the most important thing is the change of the consciousness. All other powers like this of vision should be developed without attachment as parts and aids of the Yoga.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,
22:X who has been studying astrology has prepared my horoscope. I send it to you to see. Do you think the indications he has given in it for my future have any value?

   The horoscope is sufficiently vague and favourable to be taken in consideration as the base of a mental conception for your future. The most important factor in a horoscope is the intuitive faculty of the astrologer.
   ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,
23:States of consciousness there are in which Death is only a change in immortal Life, pain a violent backwash of the waters of universal delight, limitation a turning of the Infinite upon itself, evil a circling of the good around its own perfection; and this not in abstract conception only, but in actual vision and in constant and substantial experience. To arrive at such states of consciousness may, for the individual, be one of the most important and indispensable steps of his progress towards self-perfection.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,
24:When one sees them thinking all the time about themselves, referring everything to themselves, governed simply by their own little person, placing themselves in the centre of the universe and trying to organise the whole universe including God around themselves, as though that were the most important thing in the universe. If one could only see oneself objectively, you know, as one sees oneself in a mirror, observe oneself living, it is so grotesque! (Laughing) That's enough for you to... One suddenly feels that he is becoming - oh, so absolutely ridiculous! ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954, [T2],
25:The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear. ~ Stephen King,
26:I have read your account of your sadhana. There is nothing to say, I think, - for it is all right - except that the most important thing for you is to develop the psychic fire in the heart and the aspiration for the psychic being to come forward as the leader of the sadhana. When the psychic does so, it will show you the 'undetected ego-knots' of which you speak and loosen them or burn them in the psychic fire. This psychic development and the psychic change of mind, vital and physical consciousness is of the utmost importance because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation without which the supramental must always remain far distant. Powers etc. have their place, but a very minor one so long as this is not done.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - III,
27:Prudence and Balance
Vigilance: indispensable for all true progress.
*
In each human being there is a beast crouching ready to manifest at the slightest unwatchfulness. The only remedy is a constant vigilance. 18 August 1954
*
Prudence: very useful for weakness because weakness needs prudence; strength does not need it.
*
Common sense: it is very practical and avoids any mistakes, but it lacks light.
*
Sobriety has never done harm to anyone.
** *
Equanimity: immutable peace and calm.
*
In the deep peace of equanimity the love will grow to its full
blossoming in a sense of pure and constant unity. 5 October 1934
*
All mischief comes from a lack of balance.
So, let us keep our balance carefully, always, in all circumstances. 10 August 1954
*
Perfect balance: one of the most important conditions of a growing peace. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,
28:I think one of the most important thing is to know why one meditates; this is what gives the quality of the meditation and makes it of one order or another.
You may meditate to open yourself to the divine Force, you may meditate to reject the ordinary consciousness, you may meditate to enter the depths of your being, you may meditate to learn how to give yourself integrally; you may meditate for all kinds of things. You may meditate to enter into peace and calm and silence - this is what people generally do, but without much success. But you may also meditate to receive the Force of transformation, to discover the points to be transformed, to trace out the line of progress. And then you may also meditate for very practical reasons: when you have a difficulty to clear up, a solution to find, when you want help in some action or another. You may meditate for that too.
I think everyone has his own mode of meditation. But if one wants the meditation to be dynamic, one must have an aspiration for progress and the meditation must be done to help and fulfill this aspiration for progress. Then it becomes dynamic. ~ The Mother,
29:Raise Your Standards
Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards. When people ask me what really changed my life eight years ago, I tell them that absolutely the most important thing was changing what I demanded of myself. I wrote down all the things I would no longer accept in my life, all the things I would no longer tolerate, and all the things that I aspired to becoming.
Think of the far-reaching consequences set in motion by men and women who raised their standards and acted in accordance with them, deciding they would tolerate no less. History chronicles the inspiring examples of people like Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Albeit Einstein, Cesar Chavez, Soichiro Honda, and many others who took the magnificently powerful step of raising their standards. The same power that was available to them is available to you, if you have the courage to claim it. Changing an organization, acompany, a country-or a world-begins with the simple step of changing yourself.


STEP TWO

Change Your Limiting Beliefs ~ Anthony Robbins, How to take Immediate Control of Your Mental Emotional Physical and Financial Destiny,
30:To prepare for Astral Magic a temple or series of temples needs to be erected on the plane of visualized imagination. Such temples can take any convenient form although some magicians prefer to work with an exact simulacrum of their physical temple. The astral temple is visualized in fine detail and should contain all the equipment required for ritual or at least cupboards where any required instruments can be found.
   Any objects visualized into the temple should always remain there for subsequent inspection unless specifically dissolved or removed. The most important object in the temple is the magician's image of himself working in it. At first it may seem that he is merely manipulating a puppet of himself in the temple but with persistence this should give way to a feeling of actually being there. Before beginning Astral Magic proper, the required temple and instruments together with an image of the magician moving about in it should be built up by a repeated series of visualizations until all the details are perfect. Only when this is complete should the magician begin to use the temple. Each conjuration that is performed should be planned in advance with the same attention to detail as in Ritual Magic. The various acts of astral evocation, divination, enchantment, invocation and illumination take on a similar general form to the acts of Ritual Magic which the magician adapts for astral work. ~ Peter J Carroll, Liber Kaos [T2],
31:At the basis of this collaboration there is necessarily the will to change, no longer to be what one is, for things to be no longer what they are. There are several ways of reaching it, and all the methods are good when they succeed! One may be deeply disgusted with what exists and wish ardently to come out of all this and attain something else; one may - and this is a more positive way - one may feel within oneself the touch, the approach of something positively beautiful and true, and willingly drop all the rest so that nothing may burden the journey to this new beauty and truth.

   What is indispensable in every case is the ardent will for progress, the willing and joyful renunciation of all that hampers the advance: to throw far away from oneself all that prevents one from going forward, and to set out into the unknown with the ardent faith that this is the truth of tomorrow, inevitable, which must necessarily come, which nothing, nobody, no bad will, even that of Nature, can prevent from becoming a reality - perhaps of a not too distant future - a reality which is being worked out now and which those who know how to change, how not to be weighed down by old habits, will surely have the good fortune not only to see but to realise. People sleep, they forget, they take life easy - they forget, forget all the time.... But if we could remember... that we are at an exceptional hour, a unique time, that we have this immense good fortune, this invaluable privilege of being present at the birth of a new world, we could easily get rid of everything that impedes and hinders our progress.

   So, the most important thing, it seems, is to remember this fact; even when one doesn't have the tangible experience, to have the certainty of it and faith in it; to remember always, to recall it constantly, to go to sleep with this idea, to wake up with this perception; to do all that one does with this great truth as the background, as a constant support, this great truth that we are witnessing the birth of a new world.

   We can participate in it, we can become this new world. And truly, when one has such a marvellous opportunity, one should be ready to give up everything for its sake. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958, [T1],
32:The Examiners
The integral yoga consists of an uninterrupted series of examinations that one has to undergo without any previous warning, thus obliging you to be constantly on the alert and attentive.

   Three groups of examiners set us these tests. They appear to have nothing to do with one another, and their methods are so different, sometimes even so apparently contradictory, that it seems as if they could not possibly be leading towards the same goal. Nevertheless, they complement one another, work towards the same end, and are all indispensable to the completeness of the result.

   The three types of examination are: those set by the forces of Nature, those set by spiritual and divine forces, and those set by hostile forces. These last are the most deceptive in their appearance and to avoid being caught unawares and unprepared requires a state of constant watchfulness, sincerity and humility.

   The most commonplace circumstances, the events of everyday life, the most apparently insignificant people and things all belong to one or other of these three kinds of examiners. In this vast and complex organisation of tests, those events that are generally considered the most important in life are the easiest examinations to undergo, because they find you ready and on your guard. It is easier to stumble over the little stones in your path, because they attract no attention.

   Endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and fearlessness are the qualities specially needed for the examinations of physical nature.

   Aspiration, trust, idealism, enthusiasm and generous self-giving, for spiritual examinations.

   Vigilance, sincerity and humility for the examinations from hostile forces.

   And do not imagine that there are on the one hand people who undergo the examinations and on the other people who set them. Depending on the circumstances and the moment we are all both examiners and examinees, and it may even happen that one is at the same time both examiner and examinee. And the benefit one derives from this depends, both in quality and in quantity, on the intensity of one's aspiration and the awakening of one's consciousness.

   To conclude, a final piece of advice: never set yourself up as an examiner. For while it is good to remember constantly that one may be undergoing a very important examination, it is extremely dangerous to imagine that one is responsible for setting examinations for others. That is the open door to the most ridiculous and harmful kinds of vanity. It is the Supreme Wisdom which decides these things, and not the ignorant human will. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,
33:30. Take the same position as heretofore and visualize a Battleship; see the grim monster floating on the surface of the water; there appears to be no life anywhere about; all is silence; you know that by far the largest part of the vessel is under water; out of sight; you know that the ship is as large and as heavy as a twenty-story skyscraper; you know that there are hundreds of men ready to spring to their appointed task instantly; you know that every department is in charge of able, trained, skilled officials who have proven themselves competent to take charge of this marvelous piece of mechanism; you know that although it lies apparently oblivious to everything else, it has eyes which see everything for miles around, and nothing is permitted to escape its watchful vision; you know that while it appears quiet, submissive and innocent, it is prepared to hurl a steel projectile weighing thousands of pounds at an enemy many miles away; this and much more you can bring to mind with comparatively no effort whateveR But how did the battleship come to be where it is; how did it come into existence in the first place? All of this you want to know if you are a careful observer.
   31. Follow the great steel plates through the foundries, see the thousands of men employed in their production; go still further back, and see the ore as it comes from the mine, see it loaded on barges or cars, see it melted and properly treated; go back still further and see the architect and engineers who planned the vessel; let the thought carry you back still further in order to determine why they planned the vessel; you will see that you are now so far back that the vessel is something intangible, it no longer exists, it is now only a thought existing in the brain of the architect; but from where did the order come to plan the vessel? Probably from the Secretary of Defense; but probably this vessel was planned long before the war was thought of, and that Congress had to pass a bill appropriating the money; possibly there was opposition, and speeches for or against the bill. Whom do these Congressmen represent? They represent you and me, so that our line of thought begins with the Battleship and ends with ourselves, and we find in the last analysis that our own thought is responsible for this and many other things, of which we seldom think, and a little further reflection will develop the most important fact of all and that is, if someone had not discovered the law by which this tremendous mass of steel and iron could be made to float upon the water, instead of immediately going to the bottom, the battleship could not have come into existence at all. ~ Charles F Haanel, The Master Key System,
34:Ekajaṭī or Ekajaṭā, (Sanskrit: "One Plait Woman"; Wylie: ral gcig ma: one who has one knot of hair),[1] also known as Māhacīnatārā,[2] is one of the 21 Taras. Ekajati is, along with Palden Lhamo deity, one of the most powerful and fierce goddesses of Vajrayana Buddhist mythology.[1][3] According to Tibetan legends, her right eye was pierced by the tantric master Padmasambhava so that she could much more effectively help him subjugate Tibetan demons.

Ekajati is also known as "Blue Tara", Vajra Tara or "Ugra Tara".[1][3] She is generally considered one of the three principal protectors of the Nyingma school along with Rāhula and Vajrasādhu (Wylie: rdo rje legs pa).

Often Ekajati appears as liberator in the mandala of the Green Tara. Along with that, her ascribed powers are removing the fear of enemies, spreading joy, and removing personal hindrances on the path to enlightenment.

Ekajati is the protector of secret mantras and "as the mother of the mothers of all the Buddhas" represents the ultimate unity. As such, her own mantra is also secret. She is the most important protector of the Vajrayana teachings, especially the Inner Tantras and termas. As the protector of mantra, she supports the practitioner in deciphering symbolic dakini codes and properly determines appropriate times and circumstances for revealing tantric teachings. Because she completely realizes the texts and mantras under her care, she reminds the practitioner of their preciousness and secrecy.[4] Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama meditated upon her in early childhood.

According to Namkhai Norbu, Ekajati is the principal guardian of the Dzogchen teachings and is "a personification of the essentially non-dual nature of primordial energy."[5]

Dzogchen is the most closely guarded teaching in Tibetan Buddhism, of which Ekajati is a main guardian as mentioned above. It is said that Sri Singha (Sanskrit: Śrī Siṃha) himself entrusted the "Heart Essence" (Wylie: snying thig) teachings to her care. To the great master Longchenpa, who initiated the dissemination of certain Dzogchen teachings, Ekajati offered uncharacteristically personal guidance. In his thirty-second year, Ekajati appeared to Longchenpa, supervising every ritual detail of the Heart Essence of the Dakinis empowerment, insisting on the use of a peacock feather and removing unnecessary basin. When Longchenpa performed the ritual, she nodded her head in approval but corrected his pronunciation. When he recited the mantra, Ekajati admonished him, saying, "Imitate me," and sang it in a strange, harmonious melody in the dakini's language. Later she appeared at the gathering and joyously danced, proclaiming the approval of Padmasambhava and the dakinis.[6] ~ Wikipedia,
35:How can one awaken his Yoga-shakti?

It depends on this: when one thinks that it is the most important thing in his life. That's all.

Some people sit in meditation, concentrate on the base of the vertebral column and want it very much to awake, but that's not enough. It is when truly it becomes the most important thing in one's life, when all the rest seems to have lost all taste, all interest, all importance, when one feels within that one is born for this, that one is here upon earth for this, and that it is the only thing that truly counts, then that's enough.

One can concentrate on the different centres; but sometimes one concentrates for so long, with so much effort, and has no result. And then one day something shakes you, you feel that you are going to lose your footing, you have to cling on to something; then you cling within yourself to the idea of union with the Divine, the idea of the divine Presence, the idea of the transformation of the consciousness, and you aspire, you want, you try to organise your feelings, movements, impulses around this. And it comes.

Some people have recommended all kinds of methods; probably these were methods which had succeeded in their case; but to tell the truth, one must find one's own method, it is only after having done the thing that one knows how it should be done, not before.

If one knows it beforehand, one makes a mental construction and risks greatly living in his mental construction, which is an illusion; because when the mind builds certain conditions and then they are realised, there are many chances of there being mostly pure mental construction which is not the experience itself but its image. So for all these truly spiritual experiences I think it is wiser to have them before knowing them. If one knows them, one imitates them, one doesn't have them, one imagines oneself having them; whereas if one knows nothing - how things are and how they ought to happen, what should happen and how it will come about - if one knows nothing about all this, then by keeping very still and making a kind of inner sorting out within one's being, one can suddenly have the experience, and then later knows what one has had. It is over, and one knows how it has to be done when one has done it - afterwards. Like that it is sure.

One may obviously make use of his imagination, imagine the Kundalini and try to pull it upwards. But one can also tell himself tales like this. I have had so many instances of people who described their experiences to me exactly as they are described in books, knowing all the words and putting down all the details, and then I asked them just a little question like that, casually: that if they had had the experience they should have known or felt a certain thing, and as this was not in the books, they could not answer.~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 211-212,
36:GURU YOGA
   Guru yoga is an essential practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. This is true in sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. It develops the heart connection with the masteR By continually strengthening our devotion, we come to the place of pure devotion in ourselves, which is the unshakeable, powerful base of the practice. The essence of guru yoga is to merge the practitioner's mind with the mind of the master.
   What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further strengthen devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities.
   In the Bon tradition, we often visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha ShenlaOdker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature.
   The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us.
   Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and masteR But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands upon your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga.
  
The Practice
   After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body,your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga.
   Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind.
   When the lights enter your body, feel them. Let your body, energy, and mind relax, suffused inwisdom light. Use your imagination to make the blessing real in your full experience, in your body and energy as well as in the images in your mind.
   After receiving the blessing, imagine the master dissolving into light that enters your heart and resides there as your innermost essence. Imagine that you dissolve into that light, and remain inpure awareness, rigpa.
   There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path.
   ~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep, [T3],
37:Mental Education

OF ALL lines of education, mental education is the most widely known and practised, yet except in a few rare cases there are gaps which make it something very incomplete and in the end quite insufficient.

   Generally speaking, schooling is considered to be all the mental education that is necessary. And when a child has been made to undergo, for a number of years, a methodical training which is more like cramming than true schooling, it is considered that whatever is necessary for his mental development has been done. Nothing of the kind. Even conceding that the training is given with due measure and discrimination and does not permanently damage the brain, it cannot impart to the human mind the faculties it needs to become a good and useful instrument. The schooling that is usually given can, at the most, serve as a system of gymnastics to increase the suppleness of the brain. From this standpoint, each branch of human learning represents a special kind of mental gymnastics, and the verbal formulations given to these various branches each constitute a special and well-defined language.

   A true mental education, which will prepare man for a higher life, has five principal phases. Normally these phases follow one after another, but in exceptional individuals they may alternate or even proceed simultaneously. These five phases, in brief, are:

   (1) Development of the power of concentration, the capacity of attention.
   (2) Development of the capacities of expansion, widening, complexity and richness.
   (3) Organisation of one's ideas around a central idea, a higher ideal or a supremely luminous idea that will serve as a guide in life.
   (4) Thought-control, rejection of undesirable thoughts, to become able to think only what one wants and when one wants.
   (5) Development of mental silence, perfect calm and a more and more total receptivity to inspirations coming from the higher regions of the being.

   It is not possible to give here all the details concerning the methods to be employed in the application of these five phases of education to different individuals. Still, a few explanations on points of detail can be given.

   Undeniably, what most impedes mental progress in children is the constant dispersion of their thoughts. Their thoughts flutter hither and thither like butterflies and they have to make a great effort to fix them. Yet this capacity is latent in them, for when you succeed in arousing their interest, they are capable of a good deal of attention. By his ingenuity, therefore, the educator will gradually help the child to become capable of a sustained effort of attention and a faculty of more and more complete absorption in the work in hand. All methods that can develop this faculty of attention from games to rewards are good and can all be utilised according to the need and the circumstances. But it is the psychological action that is most important and the sovereign method is to arouse in the child an interest in what you want to teach him, a liking for work, a will to progress. To love to learn is the most precious gift that one can give to a child: to love to learn always and everywhere, so that all circumstances, all happenings in life may be constantly renewed opportunities for learning more and always more.

   For that, to attention and concentration should be added observation, precise recording and faithfulness of memory. This faculty of observation can be developed by varied and spontaneous exercises, making use of every opportunity that presents itself to keep the child's thought wakeful, alert and prompt. The growth of the understanding should be stressed much more than that of memory. One knows well only what one has understood. Things learnt by heart, mechanically, fade away little by little and finally disappear; what is understood is never forgotten. Moreover, you must never refuse to explain to a child the how and the why of things. If you cannot do it yourself, you must direct the child to those who are qualified to answer or point out to him some books that deal with the question. In this way you will progressively awaken in the child the taste for true study and the habit of making a persistent effort to know.

   This will bring us quite naturally to the second phase of development in which the mind should be widened and enriched.

   You will gradually show the child that everything can become an interesting subject for study if it is approached in the right way. The life of every day, of every moment, is the best school of all, varied, complex, full of unexpected experiences, problems to be solved, clear and striking examples and obvious consequences. It is so easy to arouse healthy curiosity in children, if you answer with intelligence and clarity the numerous questions they ask. An interesting reply to one readily brings others in its train and so the attentive child learns without effort much more than he usually does in the classroom. By a choice made with care and insight, you should also teach him to enjoy good reading-matter which is both instructive and attractive. Do not be afraid of anything that awakens and pleases his imagination; imagination develops the creative mental faculty and through it study becomes living and the mind develops in joy.

   In order to increase the suppleness and comprehensiveness of his mind, one should see not only that he studies many varied topics, but above all that a single subject is approached in various ways, so that the child understands in a practical manner that there are many ways of facing the same intellectual problem, of considering it and solving it. This will remove all rigidity from his brain and at the same time it will make his thinking richer and more supple and prepare it for a more complex and comprehensive synthesis. In this way also the child will be imbued with the sense of the extreme relativity of mental learning and, little by little, an aspiration for a truer source of knowledge will awaken in him.

   Indeed, as the child grows older and progresses in his studies, his mind too ripens and becomes more and more capable of forming general ideas, and with them almost always comes a need for certitude, for a knowledge that is stable enough to form the basis of a mental construction which will permit all the diverse and scattered and often contradictory ideas accumulated in his brain to be organised and put in order. This ordering is indeed very necessary if one is to avoid chaos in one's thoughts. All contradictions can be transformed into complements, but for that one must discover the higher idea that will have the power to bring them harmoniously together. It is always good to consider every problem from all possible standpoints so as to avoid partiality and exclusiveness; but if the thought is to be active and creative, it must, in every case, be the natural and logical synthesis of all the points of view adopted. And if you want to make the totality of your thoughts into a dynamic and constructive force, you must also take great care as to the choice of the central idea of your mental synthesis; for upon that will depend the value of this synthesis. The higher and larger the central idea and the more universal it is, rising above time and space, the more numerous and the more complex will be the ideas, notions and thoughts which it will be able to organise and harmonise.

   It goes without saying that this work of organisation cannot be done once and for all. The mind, if it is to keep its vigour and youth, must progress constantly, revise its notions in the light of new knowledge, enlarge its frame-work to include fresh notions and constantly reclassify and reorganise its thoughts, so that each of them may find its true place in relation to the others and the whole remain harmonious and orderly.

   All that has just been said concerns the speculative mind, the mind that learns. But learning is only one aspect of mental activity; the other, which is at least equally important, is the constructive faculty, the capacity to form and thus prepare action. This very important part of mental activity has rarely been the subject of any special study or discipline. Only those who want, for some reason, to exercise a strict control over their mental activities think of observing and disciplining this faculty of formation; and as soon as they try it, they have to face difficulties so great that they appear almost insurmountable.

   And yet control over this formative activity of the mind is one of the most important aspects of self-education; one can say that without it no mental mastery is possible. As far as study is concerned, all ideas are acceptable and should be included in the synthesis, whose very function is to become more and more rich and complex; but where action is concerned, it is just the opposite. The ideas that are accepted for translation into action should be strictly controlled and only those that agree with the general trend of the central idea forming the basis of the mental synthesis should be permitted to express themselves in action. This means that every thought entering the mental consciousness should be set before the central idea; if it finds a logical place among the thoughts already grouped, it will be admitted into the synthesis; if not, it will be rejected so that it can have no influence on the action. This work of mental purification should be done very regularly in order to secure a complete control over one's actions.

   For this purpose, it is good to set apart some time every day when one can quietly go over one's thoughts and put one's synthesis in order. Once the habit is acquired, you can maintain control over your thoughts even during work and action, allowing only those which are useful for what you are doing to come to the surface. Particularly, if you have continued to cultivate the power of concentration and attention, only the thoughts that are needed will be allowed to enter the active external consciousness and they then become all the more dynamic and effective. And if, in the intensity of concentration, it becomes necessary not to think at all, all mental vibration can be stilled and an almost total silence secured. In this silence one can gradually open to the higher regions of the mind and learn to record the inspirations that come from there.

   But even before reaching this point, silence in itself is supremely useful, because in most people who have a somewhat developed and active mind, the mind is never at rest. During the day, its activity is kept under a certain control, but at night, during the sleep of the body, the control of the waking state is almost completely removed and the mind indulges in activities which are sometimes excessive and often incoherent. This creates a great stress which leads to fatigue and the diminution of the intellectual faculties.

   The fact is that like all the other parts of the human being, the mind too needs rest and it will not have this rest unless we know how to provide it. The art of resting one's mind is something to be acquired. Changing one's mental activity is certainly one way of resting; but the greatest possible rest is silence. And as far as the mental faculties are concerned a few minutes passed in the calm of silence are a more effective rest than hours of sleep.

   When one has learned to silence the mind at will and to concentrate it in receptive silence, then there will be no problem that cannot be solved, no mental difficulty whose solution cannot be found. When it is agitated, thought becomes confused and impotent; in an attentive tranquillity, the light can manifest itself and open up new horizons to man's capacity. Bulletin, November 1951

   ~ The Mother, On Education,

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:The most important time is Now ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
2:The most important thing is family. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove
3:The most important thing is to DARE. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove
4:Gratitude is the most important attitude. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove
5:Future generation is the most important thing. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove
6:Wisdom is the most important part of happiness. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove
7:The most important actions are never comfortable. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove
8:Love is the most important healing power there is. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove
9:The most important job in life is being a mom. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove
10:The most important things are the hardest to say ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove
11:Next to love, balance is the most important thing. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove
12:What if I’ve forgotten the most important thing? ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
13:To master fear is the most important battle to win. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove
14:Do you know the most important trait a man can have? ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove
15:The most important medicine is tender love and care. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove
16:The most important thing is growing old gracefully. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove
17:The most important history is the history we make today. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove
18:Parenting is the most important profession in the world. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove
19:The most important question to ask is "What am I becoming?" ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove
20:Man, not men, is the most important consideration. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove
21:The most important thing in the world is family and love. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove
22:The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove
23:The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove
24:And the most important single word of all is - &
25:Winning is not the most important thing; it's everything. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove
26:Dying is the most important moment that exists in any incarnation ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove
27:Personality is the most important thing to an actress's success. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove
28:Meet the most important living person! That person is you. ~ w-clement-stone, @wisdomtrove
29:The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove
30:The most important person is the one you are with in this moment. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
31:Homemaking is surely in reality the most important work in the world. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove
32:The most important question anyone can ask is: What myth am I living? ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove
33:Personal satisfaction is the most important ingredient of success. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove
34:The most important element in a picture cannot be defined. ~ pierre-auguste-renoir, @wisdomtrove
35:The most important three words you can say to yourself: Yes I can! ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove
36:The most important thing you think is what you think about God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove
37:Work is the least important thing and family is the most important. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove
38:The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
39:The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove
40:Spend unbroken chunks of time with the most important people in your life. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
41:Perhaps the most important word in success and happiness is the word,"ask." ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
42:The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
43:One of the most important rules of personal effectiveness is the 10/90 rule. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
44:Honesty and integrity are by far the most important assets of an entrepreneur. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove
45:Next to gold and jewelry, health is the most important thing you can have. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove
46:The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
47:The most important opinion you'll ever have is the one you hold of yourself. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove
48:The most important question in the world is, &
49:The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove
50:The most important thing for entrepreneurs is not to be put off by failure. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove
51:Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove
52:The most important survival ability for any life form is the ability to change. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove
53:The way you see things - your attitude - is the most important factor in your success. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove
54:To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove
55:For human beings, love is the most important fruit of experience in the sense world. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove
56:I think [Sacrifice of Isaac] is the most important event in the Bible except for Sinai. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove
57:Relationships are the most important thing in life, and friends are a part of that. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove
58:The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove
59:Audrey Hepburn quote: The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy... ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove
60:The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made. ~ george-burns, @wisdomtrove
61:I hold that the parentheses are by far the most important parts of a non-business letter. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove
62:The most important thing women have to do is to stir up the zeal of women themselves. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove
63:The most important thing about you is what comes to your mind when you think of God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove
64:Do what you would do for free, having passion for what you do is the most important thing. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
65:Massive elimination is the most important step and the most neglected step for entrepreneurs. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove
66:What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove
67:The most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but adaptability. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove
68:The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove
69:Your ability to set and achieve goals is perhaps the most important skill you can ever develop. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
70:Happiness is the most important thing in the world, without it, you live a life of depression. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove
71:In our obsessive wish to arrive, we often forget the most important thing, which is the journey. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove
72:Stress reduces serotonin, probably the most important neurotransmitter for maintaining a good mood. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove
73:I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove
74:In the end, it is the person you become, not the things you have achieved, that is the most important. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove
75:The most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove
76:The most important question a human being has to face... What is it? The question, Why are we here? ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove
77:In todays economy, the most important resource is no longer labor, capital or land; it is knowledge ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
78:The mirror we hold up to the person next to us is one of the most important pictures she will ever see. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove
79:The most important thing in a piece of music is to seduce people to the point where they start searching. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove
80:Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end. ~ oliver-wendell-holmes-jr, @wisdomtrove
81:The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove
82:The most important thing is that you actually care, that you do something to the very best of your ability. ~ jony-ive, @wisdomtrove
83:A father's death is the most important event, the more heartbreaking and poignant loss in a man's life. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove
84:Even if the most important person in your world rejects you, you are still real, and you are still okay. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove
85:Humility is the most important quality in the spiritual life. When it is lacking spiritual growth stops. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
86:The most important investment you can make is in yourself... nobody can tax it or take it away from you. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
87:The most important key to the permanent enhancement of self esteem is the practice of positive inner-talk. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove
88:There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
89:This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: At the time, no one knew what was coming. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
90:The best way to create spectacular results in the most important areas of your life is through daily practice ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove
91:The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove
92:When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove
93:Your attitude towards problems, difficulties, and adversities is the most important factor in overcoming them. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove
94:That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove
95:Do one thing at a time. Start the day with a list of things you have to do, and do the most important things first. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
96:While there seem to be many things to manage in the world, the most important thing to manage is your consciousness. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove
97:Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the &
98:Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove
99:Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important nonevil generators of human evil, tragedy and suffering. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove
100:THE most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove
101:The most important thing to me is, how, in the process of learning how to use my body, can I come to understand myself ? ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove
102:The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
103:The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove
104:The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove
105:Childhood constitutes the most important element in an adult's life, for it is in his early years that a man is made. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove
106:I think the most important thing is that in the last seven days we've just had the greatest adventure of our lifetimes. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove
107:Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success. ~ t-harv-eker, @wisdomtrove
108:For each role, stop and ask: What is the most important thing I can do this week to make progress in this specific role? ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove
109:From triumph to downfall is but a step. I have seen a trifle decide the most important issues in the gravest affairs. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove
110:Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove
111:Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into donors. And then do the most important job: Turn your donors into fundraisers. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove
112:And here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove
113:The most important thing in the world is that you make yourself a loving person, because this is what you will be giving away. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove
114:When someone becomes a millionaire, the least important thing is what they have. The most important thing is what they have become. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove
115:The most important choices you make are the choices about how you see yourself, the Universe, and your relationship to the Universe. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove
116:Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is a supreme creative act. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove
117:A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove
118:God is the most important thing in our lives. I suppose that's true of everybody's lives, whether or not they want to believe it. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove
119:Of all the &
120:The most important thing that we can do for the healing of our world is to hear inside ourselves, the sounds of the earth crying. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
121:What is important is not the quantity of your knowledge but its quality. You can know many things without knowing the most important. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
122:My writing has developed drastically . The Return of the Prodigal Son is the most important thing I've done, and my most mature book. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove
123:The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove
124:There is only one time that is important - NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time hat we have any power. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
125:One of the most important things a person can learn to do is to make something out of whatever he or she happens to have at the moment. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove
126:The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove
127:Repeating is the whole of living and by repeating comes understanding, and understanding is to some the most important part of living. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove
128:The most important thing is insight, that is to be - curious - to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove
129:I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
130:The most important of all sciences man can and must learn is the science of living so as to do the least evil and the greatest possible good. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
131:The power to concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one’s eyes without seeing anything. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
132:The most important thing in terms of your circle of competence is not how large the area of it is, but how well you've defined the perimeter. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
133:We're going to see leadership emerge as the most important element of business - the attribute that is highest in demand and shortest in supply. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove
134:Honestly, that is the most important thing to me: Can I continue to live up to my own expectations of myself - and not fall back into slacking? ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove
135:One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no &
136:Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove
137:[The daguerreotype] itself must undoubtedly be regarded as the most important, and perhaps the most extraordinary triumph of modern science. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove
138:The outstanding coach is a teacher that gets all his squad to accept the role that he considers to be the most important for the welfare of all. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove
139:Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove
140:SETI is probably the most important quest of our time , and it amazes me that governments and corporations are not supporting it sufficiently. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove
141:It is strange, but true, that the most important turning-points of life often come at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected ways. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove
142:The most important thing I've come to believe in is that people with mental handicaps have a unique mission to bring God's blessing to the World. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove
143:I have learned that one of the most important rules in politics is poise - which means looking like an owl after you have behaved like a jackass. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove
144:Business purpose and business mission are so rarely given adequate thought is perhaps the most important cause of business frustration and failure. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
145:The most important question to ask on the job is not &
146:The most important thing is that we need to be understood. We need someone to be able to listen to us and to understand us. Then we will suffer less. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
147:There is something to be said for every error; but, whatever may be said for it, the most important thing to be said about it is that it is erroneous. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove
148:There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove
149:And it was the kind of thing that loses the most important nuances when reduced to words. He had never told anyone about it, and he probably never would. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
150:I hope that you're learning how important you are, how important each person you see can be. Discovering each one's specialty is the most important learning. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove
151:The most important conversations, briefings, meeting, and lectures you will ever have will be those you hold with yourself in the privacy of your own mind. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove
152:The most important experiences a man can have are those that take him to the very limit; that is the only way we learn, because it requires all our courage. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove
153:Sometimes I'm asked to list the most important steps in preparing for an evangelistic mission, and my reply is always the same: prayer... prayer... prayer. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove
154:The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is ... to increase the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
155:The most important thing is a person. A person who incites your curiosity and feeds your curiosity; and machines cannot do that in the same way that people can. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove
156:The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove
157:The most important lesson that man can learn from life, is not that there is pain in this world, but that it is possible for him to transmute it into joy. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove
158:Your ability to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, and stay at it until it is complete, is an essential prerequisite for success. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
159:Real success comes in small portions day by day. You need to take pleasure in life's daily little treasures. It is the most important thing in measuring success. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove
160:A home is one of the most important assets that most people will ever buy. Homes are also where memories are made and you want to work with someone you can trust. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
161:If we live in a world where information drives what we do, the information we get becomes the most important thing. The person who chooses that information has power. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove
162:The most important thing for everyone in Gringolandia is to have ambition and become &
163:The truth is that your relationship with yourself is the most important relationship you’ll ever have. It sets the tone for all the other relationships in your life. ~ aimee-davies, @wisdomtrove
164:Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered... to feel she is the most important thing in someone's world. Only a man can paint this picture. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove
165:The companies that look after their people are the companies that do really well. I'm sure we'd like a few other attributes, but that would be the most important one. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove
166:I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove
167:I will work day and night to avoid failure, but if I can't, I'll pick myself up the next day. The most important thing for entrepreneurs is not to be put off by failure. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove
168:The most important thing in life is to stop saying &
169:When we come to Christ, weôre no longer the most important person in the world to us; Christ is. Instead of living only for ourselves, we have a higher goal: to live for Jesus. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove
170:La chose la plus importante a' toute la vie est le choix du me  tier: le hasard en dispose. The most important thing in life is to choose a profession: chance arranges for that. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove
171:People will tell you most of the story¶ and I've learned that the part they neglect to tell you is often the most important part. People hide the truth because they're afraid. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove
172:I no longer think that learning how to manage people, especially subordinates, is the most important for executives to learn. I am teaching above all else, how to manage oneself. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
173:One of the most important rules for success is this: Every great success is the result of hundreds and thousands of small efforts and accomplishments that no one sees or appreciates. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
174:The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
175:It is no contradiction - the most important single thing we can do to stimulate investment in today's economy is to raise consumption by major reduction ofindividualincometaxrates. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove
176:We have lost the art of living, and in the most important science of all, the science of daily life, the science of behavior, we are complete ignoramuses. We have psychology instead. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove
177:Synergistic convergence is the most important idea we have at our disposal to prevent collapse scenarios and move forward in a nonlinear manner toward an evolutionary society. ~ barbara-marx-hubbard, @wisdomtrove
178:Think about your goals and review them daily. Every morning when you begin, take action on the most important task you can accomplish to achieve your most important goal at the moment. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
179:Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from morons. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove
180:There are three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is the most important of all to reach the heart of the reader. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove
181:Your choice of people to associate with, both personally and business-wise, is one of the most important choices you make. If you associate with turkeys, you will never fly with the eagles. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
182:I choose to work with every single person that I work with. That ends up being the most important factor. I don't interact with people I don't like or admire. That's the key. It's like marrying. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
183:See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove
184:The thing is to understand myself: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. That is what I now recognize as the most important thing. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove
185:Give your undivided attention to the most important in your life - yourself. Of your personal universe you are the centre - without knowing the centre what else can you know? ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
186:... mediocre people find their way into positions of authority... because when it comes to even the most important positions, our selection decisions are a good deal less rational than we think. ~ malcolm-gladwell, @wisdomtrove
187:When the documentary of &
188:It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not &
189:Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove
190:People who watch their weight, golf scores, and fuel bills seem to shun quantitative evaluation of their investment management skills although it involves the most important client in the world-themselves. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
191:The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove
192:New truth is often uncomfortable, especially to the holders of power; nevertheless, amid the long record of cruelty and bigotry, it is the most important achievement of our intelligent but wayward species. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove
193:The most important work of the executive is to identify the changes that have already happened. The important thing . . . is to exploit the changes that have already occurred and to use them as opportunities. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
194:The most important thing in arithmetic is not the shapes of the numbers but the reality living in them. This living reality has much more meaning for the spiritual world than what lives in reading and writing. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove
195:The most exciting and, by far, the most important part of our Florida project, in fact, the heart of everything well be doing in Disney World, will be our experimental prototype city of tomorrow. We call it EPCOT. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove
196:The discovery that peace, happiness and love are ever-present within our own Being, and completely available at every moment of experience, under all conditions, is the most important discovery that anyone can make. ~ rupert-spira, @wisdomtrove
197:The most important decisions in organizations are people decisions, and yet only the military, and only recently, has begun to ask, "If we assign this general to lead this base, what do we expect him to accomplish?" ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
198:There just isn't enough time for everything on our &
199:I actually learned about sex watching neighborhood dogs. And it was good. Go ahead and laugh. I think the most important thing I learned was: Never let go of the girl's leg, no matter how hard she tries to shake you off. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove
200:Perhaps the most important revelation is precisely this: that the left cerebral hemisphere of humans is prone to fabricating verbal narratives that do not necessarily accord with the truth. Antonio Damasio (neuroscientist) ~ byron-katie, @wisdomtrove
201:Since the most important responsibility of a coach in regard to the actual playing of the game is to teach his players properly and effectively to execute the various fundamentals of the game, he is first of all a teacher. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove
202:The most important thing is not to think very much about oneself. To investigate candidly the charge; but not fussily, not very anxiously. On no account to retaliate by going to the other extreme - thinking too much. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove
203:A Zen student asked his roshi the most important element of Zen.The roshi replied, "Attention." "Yes, thank you," the student replied. "But can you tell me the second most important element?"And the roshi replied, "Attention." ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove
204:If you will make a deliberate decision to develop a positive attitude toward opportunities and obstacles, you are on your way toward having what is the most important quality in education: the power of positive thinking. ~ robert-h-schuller, @wisdomtrove
205:Lap, n. One of the most important organs of the female system - an admirable provision of nature for the repose of infancy, but chiefly useful in rural festivities to support plates of cold chicken and heads of adult males. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove
206:If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
207:In the end, the most important thing is not to do things for people who are poor and in distress, but to enter into relationship with them, to be with them and help them find confidence in themselves and discover their own gifts. ~ jean-vanier, @wisdomtrove
208:The most important thing is sensitivity. Many people have sex and don't feel anything, and that seems kind of sad to me. The answer is not necessarily the avoidance of sex, but learning to be sensitive and to love and to care. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
209:I have an increasing sense that the most important crisis of our time is spiritual and that we need places where people can grow stronger in the spirit and be able to integrate the emotional struggles in their spiritual journeys. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove
210:It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths. So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove
211:What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove
212:One of the most important-and most neglected-elements in the beginning of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendour that is all around us. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove
213:The most important thing in life is not simply to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence, and makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove
214:What if I’ve forgotten the most important thing? What if somewhere inside me there is a dark limbo where all the truly important memories are heaped and slowly turning into mud?... the thought fills me with an almost unbearable sorrow. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
215:I fully subscribe to the judgement of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animal, the moral sense of conscience is by far the most important... .It is the most noble of all the attributes of man. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove
216:I learned the most important lesson of my life: that the extraordinary is not the birth right of a chosen and privileged few, but of all people, even the humblest. That is my one certainty: we are all the manifestation of the divinity of God. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove
217:One of the most important areas requiring change is how we solve our personal problems. We normally attempt to solve our inner disturbances by protecting ourselves. Real transformation begins when you embrace your problems as agents of growth. ~ michael-singer, @wisdomtrove
218:The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you're wrinkled. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove
219:But in truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove
220:But the Hebrew word, the word timshel‚îThou mayest'‚î that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if Thou mayest'‚îit is also true that Thou mayest not. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove
221:The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove
222:This is the tragedy and woe of the hour&
223:If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you'll spend your life completely wasting your time. You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing thing you don't like doing, which is stupid. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove
224:We get so wrapped up in numbers in our society. The most important thing is that we are able to be one-to-one, you and I with each other at the moment. If we can be present to the moment with the person that we happen to be with, that's what's important. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove
225:The quality of love and the duration of a relationship are in direct proportion to the depth of the commitment by both people to making the relationship successful. Commit yourself wholeheartedly and unconditionally to the most important people in your life. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
226:Learning to know anxiety is an adventure which every man has to affront if he would not go to perdition either by not having known anxiety or by sinking under it. He therefore who has leaned rightly to be in anxiety has learned the most important thing. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove
227:When you begin to become conscious, more aware, when your eyes begin to open, the first thing you see is how deluded you are and how much you're holding onto that which makes you suffer. This is, in many ways, the most important step: Are you willing to be aware? ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove
228:If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove
229:Do one thing at a time. Start the day with a list of things you have to do, and do the most important things first. Even if you don't get the list done, you've gotten the most important things done. So many people spend so much time on things that aren't important. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove
230:It is not the most distinguished achievements that men's virtues or vices may be best discovered; but very often an action of small note. An casual remark or joke shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove
231:Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
232:The most important and visible outcropping of the action bias in excellent companies is their willingness to try things out, to experiment. If you wait until you believe you are safe, sure to be without occasional foolish feelings, you've most likely waited too long. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove
233:The ego mind both professes its desire for love and does everything possible to repel it, or if it gets here anyway, to sabotage it. That is why dealing with issues like control, anger, and neediness is the most important work in preparing ourselves for love. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove
234:I think the most important thing is that in the last seven days we've just had the greatest adventure of our lifetimes. "I'm inquisitive ... and I love a new challenge... and if I feel that we can do it better than it's been done by other people, we'll have a go." ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove
235:The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove
236:The last story you should write is the most important story. You should start with a story that is just an amusing, entertaining, fun story to write and learn your writing chops with the least important things before you start applying them to the most important things. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove
237:Every choice that we makes creates consequences, consequences in the lives of others and we experience them in ourselves, those same consequences, every choice that we make. And by the way the choices that you might think are the most important are not always the most important. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove
238:Salvation and Christ's love is a gift. You don't earn it. You've got to receive that gift. I think one of the most important things is starting off the day forgiving others and forgiving yourself. You learn from your mistakes, but I don't think you have to drag them back into today. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove
239:Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove
240:The first and the most important thing is to know that life is one and immortal. Only the forms, countless in number, are transient and brittle. The life everlasting is independent of any form but manifests itself in all forms. Life then does not die... but the forms are dissolved. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove
241:Men have been taught that their first concern is to relieve the suffering of others. ... To make that the highest test of virtue is to make suffering the most important part of life. Then man must wish to see others suffer in order that he may be virtuous. Such is the nature of altruism. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove
242:The understanding of "evolutionary consciousness" is perhaps the most important thing lacking in spiritual practices today. Evolution means growth and development. This means that there are aspects of reality that have not yet arisen in our consciousness. But they will arise if we grow. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove
243:When the most important things in our life happen we quite often do not know, at the moment, what is going on. A man does not always say to himself, "hullo! i'm growing up." It is only when he looks back that he realises what has happened and recognises it as what people call "growing up. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove
244:A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove
245:Perhaps the most important use of money - It saves time. Life is so short, and there's so much to do, one can't afford to waste a minute; and just think how much you waste, for instance, in walking from place to place instead of going by bus and in going by bus instead of by taxi. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove
246:The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career; yet it depended on so small a circumstance as my uncle offering to drive me 30 miles to Shrewsbury, which few uncles would have done, and on such a trifle as the shape of my nose. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove
247:When you decide to make your awareness of the vibrational relativity between you and your source of extreme importance, you will have made the most important decision that you could ever make, for you have now consciously activated your own Personal Guidance System, and you will never be lost again. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove
248:The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove
249:To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head - and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It's an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that's not the most important thing. It's the work itself. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove
250:Winston Churchill said that appetite was the most important thing about education. Leadership guru Warren Bennis says he wants to be remembered as &
251:It is certainly true that reason is the most important and the highest rank among all things and, in comparison with other things of this life, the best and something divine. It is the inventor and mentor of all the arts, medicines, laws, and of whatever wisdom, power, virtue, and glory men possess in this life. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove
252:Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove
253:We are all affected by five things. But the most important thing that affects us is our dreams&
254:Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." I found the following quote by Goethe that can serve as a commentary on these words. "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love." "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove
255:Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another the most varied opinions can be reconciled - thus one of the most important tasks for humankind today and in the future is that we should learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of development is empty. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove
256:Personalizatio n wasn't supposed to be a cleverly veiled way to chase prospects around the web, showing them the same spammy ad for the same lame stuff as everyone else sees. No, it is a chance to differentiate at a human scale, to use behavior as the most important clue about what people want and more important, what they need. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove
257:The most important aspect of love is not in giving or the receiving: it's in the being. When I need love from others, or need to give love to others, I'm caught in an unstable situation. Being in love, rather than giving or taking love, is the only thing that provides stability. Being in love means seeing the Beloved all around me. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove
258:The most important investment you can make is in yourself. Very few people get anything like their potential horsepower translated into the actual horsepower of their output in life. Potential exceeds realization for many people... The best asset is your own self. You can become to an enormous degree the person you want to be. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove
259:And so, in my view the most important thing of all is that we should give ourselves up entirely to God whenever he allows anything to befall us, whether insult, tribulation or any other kind of suffering, accepting it with joy and gratitude and allowing God to guide us all the more rather than seeking these things out ourselves. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove
260:There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important part of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when a man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove
261:By attacking the attacker, you are stooping to his level. Even if the person was mean or rude, you don’t have to be the same way. You don’t have to commit the same sins. By participating in personal attacks, we dirty ourselves. But if we can stay above that level, we feel good about who we are. And that’s the most important benefit of all.  ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove
262:The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the MANUAL WORKER in manufacturing. The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of KNOWLEDGE WORK and the KNOWLEDGE WORKER. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
263:More and more I've come to understand that listening is one of the most important things we can do for one another. Whether the other be an adult or a child, our engagement in listening to who that person is can often be our greatest gift. Whether that person is speaking or playing or dancing, building or singing or painting, if we care, we can listen. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove
264:Between stimulus and response, you have the freedom to choose. This is your greatest power. One of the most important things you choose is what you say.  Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive language—I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive language—I can’t, I must, if only. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove
265:By saying that a woven design is merely coloured threads you miss the most important - the beauty of it. Or by describing a book as paper with ink stains on it, you miss the meaning. Identity is valuable because it is the basis of individuality; that which makes us unique and irreplaceable. &
266:If we've learned any lessons during the past few decades, perhaps the most important is that preservation of our environment is not a partisan challenge; it's common sense. Our physical health, our social happiness, and our economic well-being will be sustained only by all of us working in partnership as thoughtful, effective stewards of our natural resources. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove
267:The most important and most significant good quality in our human life is gratitude. Unfortunately, that good quality we somehow manage not to express either in our thoughts or in our actions. Right from the beginning of our life, we have somehow learned not to express it. So we have the least amount of the very thing that we need most in order to become a better person. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove
268:And once we have the condition of peace and joy in us, we can afford to be in any situation. Even in the situation of hell, we will be able to contribute our peace and serenity. The most important thing is for each of us to have some freedom in our heart, some stability in our heart, some peace in our heart. Only then will we be able to relieve the suffering around us. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
269:Forgiveness means accepting what is or what has been and becoming willing to see it differently. You cannot un-hear what you have heard or un-see what you have seen. What you can do is stop believing that what occurred has somehow left you broken, damaged and wounded. While forgiveness ain't easy, it's the most important inner work you can do within your mind and heart. ~ lyania-vanzant, @wisdomtrove
270:Real greatness is often humble, simple, and unobtrusive. It is not easy to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. Some of the greatest works of art and the most important works of peace were created by people who had no need for the limelight. They knew that what they were doing was their call, and they did it with great patience, perseverance, and love. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove
271:So I believe in singing to such an extent that if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing become a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for co-operation with others. This seems to be about the most important thing a school could do for you. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove
272:One can tell a child everything, anything. I have often been struck by the fact that parents know their children so little. They should not conceal so much from them. How well even little children understand that their parents conceal things from them, because they consider them too young to understand! Children are capable of giving advice in the most important matters. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove
273:I wonder what memories of yours will persist as you go on in life. My hunch is that the most important will have to do with feelings of loving and being loved - friends, family, teachers, shopkeepers - whoever's been close to you. As you continue to grow, you'll find many ways of expressing your love and you'll discover more and more ways in which others express their love for you. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove
274:So often with beginning writers, the story that they want to start with is the most important story of their life - my molestation, my this, my horrible drug addiction - they want to tell that most important story, and they don't have the skills to tell it yet, so it ends up becoming a comedy. A powerful story told poorly becomes funny, it just makes people laugh behind their hands. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove
275:For men, as a rule, love is but an episode which takes place among the other affairs of the day, and the emphasis laid on it in novels gives it an importance which is untrue to life. There are few men to whom it is the most important thing in the world, and they are not the very interesting ones; even women, with whom the subject is of paramount interest, have a contempt for them. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove
276:When young men or women are beginning life, the most important period, it is often said, is that in which their habits are formed. That is a very important period. But the period in which the ideals of the young are formed and adopted is more important still. For the ideal with which you go forward to measure things determines the nature, so far as you are concerned, of everything you meet. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove
277:In a civilized and cultivated country wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen. the excellent people who protest against all hunting, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wild life, are ignorant of the fact that in reality the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total extermination. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove
278:The most important thing in life is your inner energy. If you’re always tired and never enthused, then life is no fun. But if you’re always inspired and filled with energy, then every minute of every day is an exciting experience. Learn to work with these things. Through meditation, through awareness and willful efforts, you can learn to keep your centers open. You do this by just relaxing and releasing. ~ michael-singer, @wisdomtrove
279:Someone who can search for something is happy. Searching gives a meaning to life. Nowadays it’s not so easy to find something you might be looking for. The most important thing, however, is the search itself, the way you take. It’s not so important where it leads. that’s why my characters are always looking for something, maybe only a cat, a sheep or a wife, but that is at least the beginning of a story. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
280:There are 3 elements essential in the matters of the State, Food, Military equipment, and Confidence of the people in the ruler. Of these 3, Military Equipment is the least important, Food being the 2nd important, and Confidence of the people being the MOST important. All men rather die of starvation than in war, but nevertheless all men do die of old age. Lacking in Confidence from the people, a state cannot survive. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove
281:Remember that there is only one important time and it is Now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person with whom you are, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making that person, the one standing at you side, happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
282:I think memory is the most important asset of human beings. It's a kind of fuel; it burns and it warms you. My memory is like a chest: There are so many drawers in that chest, and when I want to be a fifteen-year-old boy, I open up a certain drawer and I find the scenery I saw when I was a boy in Kobe. I can smell the air, and I can touch the ground, and I can see the green of the trees. That's why I want to write a book. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
283:I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion. “Emotional” is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of the most important events. It was more like when a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove
284:This letter [to the Romans] is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove
285:The Hebrew word, the word timshel - &
286:Most marvelous and enviable is that fecundity of fancy which can adorn whatever it touches, which can invest naked fact and dry reasoning with unlooked-for beauty, make flowers bloom even on the brow of the precipice, and, when nothing better can be had, can turn the very substance of rock itself into moss and lichens. This faculty is uncomparingly the most important for the vivid and attractive exhibition of truth to the minds of men. ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove
287:Freedom is as frightening now as it was thousands of years ago. It will always require a willingness to sacrifice what is most familiar for what is most true.  To be free we may need to act from integrity, on trust, sometimes for a very long time.  Few of us will reach our promised land in a day.  But perhaps the most important part of the story is that God does not delegate this task.  Whenever anyone moves toward freedom, God Himself is there. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove
288:The postwar [WWII] GI Bill of Rights - and the enthusiastic response to it on the part of America's veterans - signaled the shift to the knowledge society. Future historians may consider it the most important event of the twentieth century. We are clearly in the midst of this transformation; indeed, if history is any guide, it will not be completed until 2010 or 2020. But already it has changed the political, economic and moral landscape of the world. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
289:Peace is the most covetable possession on the earth. It is the greatest treasure in all the universe. Peace is the most important and indispensable factor for all growth and development. It is in the tranquility and quiet of the night that the seed slowly sprouts from under the soil. The bud opens in the depth of the most silent hours. So also, in a state of peace and love, people evolve, grow in their distinctive culture, and develop perfect civilization. ~ sivananda, @wisdomtrove
290:In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time - literally - substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove
291:Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find. In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment, a strength on which to build a life. Silence is a place of great power and healing. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove
292:It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we've made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be. Salvation and Christ's love is a gift. You don't earn it. You've got to receive that gift. I think one of the most important things is starting off the day forgiving others and forgiving yourself. You learn from your mistakes, but I don't think you have to drag them back into today. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove
293:Are you balanced? Do you share your time, your energy, your life, as much with yourself as you do with those around you?. . . . Know your limits. You are one of the most important people you need to look after and love. Balance your time, your energy, your life with those around you. You'll be able to give more freely and joyfully as a result, and you'll be more open to the gifts of the universe. It's not wrong to give to others. But it's okay to say yes to ourselves, too. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove
294:Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound gods. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove
295:There is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove
296:Most of us think that decisions such as where shall I live, with whom shall I partner, what shall I pick as a career for my life are the most important decisions that we make. But from the point of view of the universe these decisions are not that important. Within you, you have already made decisions about who you are, what the universe is and how you will relate to other people and how you will relate to the universe and these decisions are creating consequences in your life moment by moment. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove
297:One problem with our current society is that we have an attitude towards education as if it is there to simply make you more clever, make you more ingenious.  Even though our society does not emphasize this, the most important use of knowledge and education is to help us understand the importance of engaging in more wholesome actions and bringing about discipline within our minds. The proper utilization of our intelligence and knowledge is to effect changes from within to develop a good heart.   ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove
298:I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention And especially if it's given from the heart. When people are talking, there's no need to do anything but receive them. Just take them in. Listen to what they're saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it. Most of us don't value ourselves or our love enough to know this. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove
299:There is this thing called the university, and everybody goes there now. And there are these things called teachers who make students read this book with good ideas or that book with good ideas until that's where we get our ideas. We don't think them; we read them in books. I like Utopian talk, speculation about what our planet should be, anger about what our planet is. I think writers are the most important members of society, not just potentially but actually. Good writers must have and stand by their own ideas. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove
300:I suppose the most important thing, the heaviest single factor in one's life, is whether one's born male or female. In most societies it determines one's expectations, activities, outlook, ethics, manners - almost everything. Vocabulary. Semiotic usages. Clothing. Even food. Women... women tend to eat less... It's extremely hard to separate the innate differences from the learned ones. Even where women participate equally with men in the society, they still after all do all the childbearing, and so most of the child-rearing. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove
301:In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil," the man said. "Good and evil are not fixed, stable entities, but are continually trading places. A good may be transformed into an evil in the next second. And vice versa. Such was the way of the world that Dostoevsky depicted in The Brothers Karamazov. The most important thing is to maintain the balance between the constantly moving good and evil. If you lean too much in either direction, it becomes difficult to maintain actual morals. Indeed, balance itself is the good. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
302:And another thing. Don’t ever kid yourself about loving some one. It is just that most people are not lucky enough ever to have it. You never had it before and now you have it. What you have with Maria, whether it lasts just through today and a part of tomorrow, or whether it lasts for a long life is the most important thing that can happen to a human being. There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it. But I tell you it is true and that you have it and that you are lucky even if you die tomorrow. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove
303:One can tell a child everything, anything. I have often been struck by the fact that parents know their children so little. They should not conceal so much from them. How well even little children understand that their parents conceal things from them, because they consider them too young to understand! Children are capable of giving advice in the most important matters. How can one deceive these dear little birds, when they look at one so sweetly and confidingly? I call them birds because there is nothing in the world better than birds! ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove
304:When she (my mother) passed away, I kind of understood the commitment that she made to make sure that I could stay in skating. And I wanted to live up to whatever I could. Not so much win everything, but just to be the best that I could possibly be, to honor her memory and everything she went through to make sure that I was given the opportunities to be the best that I can be. Not to be a world champion or an Olympic gold medalist, but to be the best that I could be. And that was the most important thing that ever happened in my career. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove
305:The most important thing in life is your inner energy. If you’re always tired and never enthused, then life is no fun. But if you’re always inspired and filled with energy, then every minute of every day is an exciting experience. Learn to work with these things. Through meditation, through awareness and willful efforts, you can learn to keep your centers open. You do this by just relaxing and releasing. You do this by not buying into the concept that there is anything worth closing over. Remember, if you love life, nothing is worth closing over. ~ michael-singer, @wisdomtrove
306:Because everybody lies. It's part of living in society. Don't get me wrong-I think it's necessary. The last thing anyone wants is to live in a society where total honesty prevails. Can you imagine the conversations? You're short and fat, one person might say, and the other might answer, I know. But you smell bad. It just wouldn't work. So people lie by omission all the time. People will tell you most of the story... and I've learned that the part they neglect to tell you is often the most important part. People hide the truth because they're afraid." -Jo ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove
307:You love the accidental. A smile from a pretty girl in an interesting situation, a stolen glance, that is what you are hunting for, that is a motif for your aimless fantasy. You who always pride yourself on being an observateur must, in return, put up with becoming an object of observation. Ah, you are a strange fellow, one moment a child, the next an old man; one moment you are thinking most earnestly about the most important scholarly problems, how you will devote your life to them, and the next you are a lovesick fool. But you are a long way from marriage. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove
308:The basic problem is not political, it is apolitical and human. One of the most important things to do is to keep cutting deliberately through political lines and barriers and emphasizing the fact that these are largely fabrications and that there is another dimension, a genuine reality, totally opposed to the fictions of politics: the human dimension which politics pretend to arrogate entirely to themselves. This is the necessary first step along the long way toward the perhaps impossible task of purifying, humanizing and somehow illuminating politics themselves. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove
309:Through concentration we become one-pointed and through meditation we expand our consciousness into the Vast. But in contemplation we grow into the Vast itself. We have seen the Truth. We have felt the Truth. But the most important thing is to grow into the Truth and become totally one with the Truth. If we are concentrating on God, we may feel God right in front of us or besides us. When we are meditating, we are bound to feel Infinity, Eternity, Immortality within us. But when we are contemplating, we will see that we ourselves are Infinity, Eternity, Immortality. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove
310:Of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important. This sense, as Mackintosh remarks, "has a rightful supremacy over every other principle of human action"; it is summed up in that short but imperious word "ought," so full of high significance. It is the most noble of all the attributes of man, leading him without a moment's hesitation to risk his life for that of a fellow-creature; or after due deliberation, impelled simply by the deep feeling of right or duty, to sacrifice it in some great cause. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove
311:The basic problem is not political, it is a-political and human. One of the most important things to do is to keep cutting deliberately through political lines and barriers and emphasizing the fact that these are largely fabrications and that there is another dimension, a genuine reality, totally opposed to the fictions of politics: the human dimension which politics pretend to arrogate entirely to themselves. This is the necessary first step along the long way toward the perhaps impossible task of purifying, humanizing and somehow illuminating politics themselves. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove
312:One of the best ways to properly evaluate and adapt to the many environmental stresses of life is to simply view them as normal. The adversity and failures in our lives, if adapted to and viewed as normal corrective feedback to use to get back on target, serve to develop in us an immunity against anxiety, depression, and the adverse responses to stress. Instead of tackling the most important priorities that would make us successful and effective in life, we prefer the path of least resistance and do things simply that will relieve our tension, such as shuffling papers and majoring in minors. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove
313:Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove
314:At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance-that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be-curiosity-to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got it or not. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove
315:The third threat to liberalism is that some people will remain both indispensable and undecipherable, but they will constitute a small and privileged elite of upgraded humans. These superhumans will enjoy unheard-of abilities and unprecedented creativity, which will allow them to go on making many of the most important decisions in the world. They will perform crucial services for the system, while the system could not understand and manage them. However, most humans will not be upgraded, and they will consequently become an inferior caste, dominated by both computer algorithms and the new superhumans. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove
316:Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:The most important thing is work. ~ Lou Reed,
2:The most important time is Now ~ Leo Tolstoy,
3:The most important thing is family. ~ Walt Disney,
4:The most important thing is to begin. ~ Jason Fried,
5:The most important thing is to DARE. ~ Maya Angelou,
6:Family's the most important thing. ~ Sophie Kinsella,
7:Religion is not the most important thing. ~ Vera Rubin,
8:Happiness is the most important thing. ~ Lupita Nyong o,
9:The most important thing in art is taste. ~ Sean Lennon,
10:The most important thing is to have fun. ~ Johnny Damon,
11:BREAKFAST: THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL TO SKIP? ~ Jason Fung,
12:No bread. That's the most important thing. ~ Heidi Klum,
13:The first peace, which is the most important, ~ Black Elk,
14:The most important thing is the script. ~ Martin Scorsese,
15:Today is the most important day of our lives. ~ Nhat Hanh,
16:A smile is the most important thing you wear. ~ Tyra Banks,
17:Future generation is the most important thing. ~ Confucius,
18:Hustle is the most important word--EVER. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk,
19:The most important lens you have is your legs ~ Ernst Haas,
20:The most important thing I do is I'm a dad. ~ Stuart Scott,
21:For ecommerce, the most important thing is trust. ~ Jack Ma,
22:Love is by far the most important thing of all. ~ Emmet Fox,
23:Wisdom is the most important part of happiness. ~ Sophocles,
24:As parents, the most important thing we can do ~ Laura Bush,
25:The beginning is the most important part of the work ~ Plato,
26:The last film is always the most important. ~ Claude Lelouch,
27:The most important shot in golf is the next one. ~ Ben Hogan,
28:The beginning is the most important part of any work. ~ Plato,
29:The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~ Plato,
30:The most important thing is presentation. ~ David Copperfield,
31:The most important things in life
Are not things. ~ Unknown,
32:The most important time in life is the present. ~ Aitzaz Ahsan,
33:Being popular is the most important thing in the world! ~ Homer,
34:Courage is the most important spiritual quality. ~ Paulo Coelho,
35:Love is the most important healing power there is. ~ Louise Hay,
36:The first ninety minutes are the most important. ~ Bobby Robson,
37:The most important actions are never comfortable. ~ Tim Ferriss,
38:The most important job in life is being a mom. ~ Audrey Hepburn,
39:The most important thing is sailing toward shore. ~ Russ Harris,
40:The most important things are the hardest to say ~ Stephen King,
41:The present is the most important moment in life . ~ The Mother,
42:Next to love, balance is the most important thing. ~ John Wooden,
43:The beginning is the most important part of the work.
   ~ Plato,
44:The drugs were the most important thing to me. ~ Sophie Anderton,
45:the most important thing is not life, but the good life. ~ Plato,
46:The most important things cannot be measured. ~ W Edwards Deming,
47:The work is the most important thing. ~ Dietrich Fischer Dieskau,
48:When the most important things in our life happen we ~ C S Lewis,
49:Family is the most important thing in the world. ~ Princess Diana,
50:Light is the most important person in the picture. ~ Claude Monet,
51:The most important thing in life is human affection. ~ Dalai Lama,
52:The most important things in life are intangible. ~ Thom Hartmann,
53:Education is the most important thing you can have. ~ Torrey Smith,
54:Free will is not always the most important thing ~ Robert J Sawyer,
55:No one ever pays to learn the most important things. ~ Neel Burton,
56:The most important thing is to not waste your money. ~ Gareth Bale,
57:What if I’ve forgotten the most important thing? ~ Haruki Murakami,
58:Earnestness is the most important thing. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,
59:Gratitude is the most important of all human emotions. ~ Hans Selye,
60:My children are the most important thing in my life. ~ Columba Bush,
61:Reading is the most important way to prepare for life. ~ Lois Lowry,
62:The most important advance in selling for many years ~ Neil Rackham,
63:The most important thing today is to stop US wars. ~ Yuri Kochiyama,
64:To master fear is the most important battle to win. ~ B K S Iyengar,
65:Communication is the most important skill in life. ~ Stephen R Covey,
66:Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life. ~ Tennessee Williams,
67:Love is the most important thing? Above everything else ~ J Sterling,
68:The most important medicine is tender love and care. ~ Mother Teresa,
69:The most important part of my religion is to play guitar. ~ Lou Reed,
70:The most important stage of any enterprise is the beginning. ~ Plato,
71:The most important thing is growing old gracefully. ~ Audrey Hepburn,
72:The most important things in life can’t be bought. ~ Elizabeth Reyes,
73:The most important things in your home are people. ~ Barbara Johnson,
74:The most important thing to do before you die is live. ~ Simon Sinek,
75:Courage is the most important attribute of a lawyer. ~ Robert Kennedy,
76:Do you know the most important trait a man can have? ~ Dale Carnegie,
77:Physics is not the most important thing. Love is. ~ Richard P Feynman,
78:Taking care of yourself is the most important thing. ~ Kathleen Hanna,
79:The most important history is the history we make today. ~ Henry Ford,
80:The most important thing is to keep the Soul aloft ~ Gustave Flaubert,
81:The most important thing is who counts the votes. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev,
82:The most important tool you have on a resume is language. ~ Jay Samit,
83:The photo is the most important thing. ~ Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
84:Children's fiction is the most important fiction of all. ~ Neil Gaiman,
85:The Bible is the most important part of your faith. ~ Elizabeth George,
86:The most important question to ask is "What am I becoming?" ~ Jim Rohn,
87:The most important thing is to not stop questioning. ~ Albert Einstein,
88:The most important things are the hardest things to say ~ Stephen King,
89:Well, a lead is the most important thing about the story. ~ Kurt Loder,
90:Every age thinks its battle the most important of all. ~ Heinrich Heine,
91:For Poland, the United States is the most important ally. ~ Donald Tusk,
92:Man, not men, is the most important consideration. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte,
93:the most important element of delightful design is empathy. ~ Anonymous,
94:The most important emotion in classrooms is surprise. ~ Andy Hargreaves,
95:The most important things are the hardest things to say. ~ Stephen King,
96:The most important thing you do in your life is to die. ~ Timothy Leary,
97:Write down the most important things you have to do tomorrow. ~ Ivy Lee,
98:Hope is the most important four-letter word in the language. ~ Ed Markey,
99:My kids are the most important people in the world to me. ~ Dwight Henry,
100:Perspective is the most important thing to have in life. ~ Lauren Graham,
101:The first 90 minutes of the match are the most important. ~ Bobby Robson,
102:The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood. ~ Voltaire,
103:The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten. ~ Brian Eno,
104:The most important thing is to get on the right horse. ~ Marc Andreessen,
105:The most important thing you wear is your personality. ~ America Ferrera,
106:Being a Catholic is the most important aspect of my life. ~ Mark Wahlberg,
107:The most important consequence of self-sufficiency is freedom. ~ Epicurus,
108:The most important thing about education is appetite. ~ Winston Churchill,
109:The most important things in your home are people. ~ Suzanne Woods Fisher,
110:The most important time in history is - NOW - the present, ~ Talib Kweli,
111:To listen with empathy is the most important human skill. ~ Stephen Covey,
112:Family is the most important thing in the world. ~ Diana Princess of Wales,
113:In a networked world, trust is the most important currency. ~ Eric Schmidt,
114:Manufacturing is the most important...route to prosperity. ~ Ha Joon Chang,
115:Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important. ~ Vladimir Lenin,
116:The first dishonest act is the most important one to prevent. ~ Dan Ariely,
117:The most important piece in the house is the garbage can. ~ Karl Lagerfeld,
118:The most important thing in a game like that is to win it. ~ Alex Ferguson,
119:The most important things aren’t decided by percentages. ~ Haruki Murakami,
120:The most important thing when ill is to never lose heart. ~ Vladimir Lenin,
121:The things we discover for ourselves are the most important. ~ Pina Bausch,
122:What I believe about God is the most important thing about me. ~ A W Tozer,
123:Winning is not the most important thing; it's everything. ~ Vince Lombardi,
124:Communication is the most important single activity of man. ~ Stephen Covey,
125:One of the most important precepts of wisdom is to know oneself. ~ Socrates,
126:… the little things are infinitely the most important. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle,
127:The most important investment you can make is in yourself. ~ Warren Buffett,
128:The most important moments rarely come at a convenient time ~ Erwin McManus,
129:The most important thing about education is appetite. ~ Winston S Churchill,
130:This is my clone. He’s the most important person in my life. ~ Nancy Farmer,
131:and I was no longer the most important person in her world. ~ Pepper Winters,
132:...because where we are is always the most important place. ~ Philip Pullman,
133:Consider the Divine Life as the most important thing to obtain. ~ The Mother,
134:Dying is the most important moment that exists in any incarnation ~ Ram Dass,
135:He knows the most important language of all. Human compassion. ~ Ann Rinaldi,
136:I think that's the most important thing: that we create dialogue. ~ Nia Long,
137:Knowing how to see, that is the most important gift from God. ~ Karen Harper,
138:lunch (not breakfast) is the most important meal of the day, ~ Daniel H Pink,
139:The bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb. ~ Diana Vreeland,
140:The most important job anyone can ever have is being a mother. ~ J A Konrath,
141:The most important part of a player's body is above his shoulders. ~ Ty Cobb,
142:The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart. ~ Vladimir Lenin,
143:The most important word in the English language is hope. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt,
144:Kissing is an art. It’s the most important part of foreplay. ~ Helena Hunting,
145:TALENT and WORK ETHIC, the most important and RARE combination. ~ Hubie Brown,
146:The most important influence in my childhood was my father. ~ DeForest Kelley,
147:The most important parts of your life will be marked by pain. ~ Bryant McGill,
148:The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. ~ Ira Glass,
149:The most important quality in a partner is a sense of humour. ~ Clare Balding,
150:The most important thing in music is what is not in the notes. ~ Pablo Casals,
151:Courage is the most important virtue because it is the hardest. ~ David Brooks,
152:Family is forever and the most important foundation in life. ~ Kristen Taekman,
153:For many people, Google is the most important tool on the Web. ~ Marissa Mayer,
154:I believe your attitude is the most important choice you can make. ~ Lou Holtz,
155:The most important knowledge is understanding what you can't do. ~ Bill Buford,
156:The most important social welfare program in America is a job. ~ Newt Gingrich,
157:The most important thing for a writer is to be locked in a study. ~ Erica Jong,
158:The most important thing is practice in daily life; then you can ~ Dalai Lama,
159:You must never stop believing. That's the most important thing ~ Anthony Doerr,
160:Often, the most important part of a conversation was the waiting. ~ Susan Wiggs,
161:Success is the most important to many, to me it's just a bonus. ~ Lucas Grabeel,
162:Tenacity isn't just the most important thing, it's the only thing. ~ Mavis Leno,
163:The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses. ~ Edith S dergran,
164:The most important attribute a player must have is mental toughness. ~ Mia Hamm,
165:The most important measures are both unknown and unknowable. ~ W Edwards Deming,
166:The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery. ~ Plato,
167:The most important person is the one you are with in this moment. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
168:The most important thing anyone can do is raise their kids well. ~ Claire Cross,
169:The most important thing is to be whatever you are without shame. ~ Rod Steiger,
170:The most important word in American, in Western culture, is "I." ~ Gene Simmons,
171:You must never stop believing. That’s the most important thing. ~ Anthony Doerr,
172:Because Freedom is the most important thing on life, let me Be. ~ John Steinbeck,
173:For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. ~ Timothy Ferriss,
174:I feel like casting is the most important aspect of making movies. ~ Ben Affleck,
175:In this light, human nature is the most important global issue. ~ Sakyong Mipham,
176:I think the most important thing is being in healthy relationships. ~ April Rose,
177:Price is the most important factor to use in relation to value. ~ Walter Schloss,
178:sometimes the littlest thing turns out to be the most important. ~ Joyce Maynard,
179:The most important thing a born again Christian can do is to pray. ~ Chuck Smith,
180:The most important thing I learned in school was how to touch type. ~ Joichi Ito,
181:The most important things is to enjoy yourself and have a good time. ~ C Z Guest,
182:The next 10 years could be the most important in the next 10,000. ~ Sylvia Earle,
183:Homemaking is surely in reality the most important work in the world. ~ C S Lewis,
184:I think the most important thing about music is the sense of escape. ~ Thom Yorke,
185:Success means controlling your own time. Time is the most important ~ Rod Steiger,
186:The most important events in every age never reach the history books. ~ C S Lewis,
187:The most important lesson is probably to spend less than you earn. ~ Derek Sivers,
188:The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know. ~ Simone Weil,
189:The most important question anyone can ask is: What myth am I living? ~ Carl Jung,
190:The most important thing about recovery is to pass the message on. ~ Maurice Gibb,
191:The most important thing for me as an artist is having an identity. ~ Eric Church,
192:the most important thing you have with another human being is trust. ~ Jojo Moyes,
193:In Dharma practice, the most important thing is to be very sincere. ~ Tenzin Palmo,
194:Listening is seen as one of the most important leadership skills. ~ James M Kouzes,
195:Next to courage, willpower is the most important thing in politics. ~ Paul Johnson,
196:Possibly the most important thing you do is actually edit the team. ~ Keith Rabois,
197:Relational skills are the most important abilities in leadership. ~ John C Maxwell,
198:The ability to learn quickly is the most important skill to have. ~ Erika Andersen,
199:The customer is the most important part of the production line. ~ W Edwards Deming,
200:The most important criteria for a DNC chair is going to be vision. ~ Keith Ellison,
201:The most important element in a picture cannot be defined. ~ Pierre Auguste Renoir,
202:The most important issue we have to deal with is freedom of movement. ~ Anna Lindh,
203:The most important question facing the planet is: Is it worth it? ~ Robert Bateman,
204:The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate. ~ Kevin Hart,
205:The most important thing to remember is you must know your audience. ~ Lewis Howes,
206:The next thing you do today will be the most important thing on your ~ Seth Godin,
207:Being a person of prayer is the most important calling in one’s life. ~ Mike Bickle,
208:I consider the Six-Phase the most important thing I do every day. ~ Vishen Lakhiani,
209:If you have kids, it is the most important thing to create good times. ~ Tom Cruise,
210:It was the most important art a person could learn: self-control. ~ Henning Mankell,
211:Never sacrifice your family. They are the most important thing in life. ~ James May,
212:One of the most important roles of our journalists is to be watchdogs. ~ Dan Rather,
213:Say the most important thing really clearly, and screw the timing.”  ~ Debora Geary,
214:Sometimes what you want isn’t the most important thing in the world. ~ Sandy Taylor,
215:The most important educational vehicle in all life is a parent figure. ~ Bill Cosby,
216:the most important lesson in entrepreneurship: Embrace the struggle. ~ Ben Horowitz,
217:The most important quality any piece of writing can have is doneness. ~ Fred Barnes,
218:The most important thing about expedition food is that there is some ~ Eric Shipton,
219:The most important thing for me is the image, not the thought. ~ Andrey Zvyagintsev,
220:The most important thing in playing any character is not judging. ~ Keira Knightley,
221:The most important thing is to be happy myself with what I am doing. ~ Rokia Traore,
222:The most important were challenges that exceeded current skills. ~ Angela Duckworth,
223:What is the most important duty? One's duty toward one's parent. ~ Giuseppe Mazzini,
224:All at once that was the most important thing—to get out of the dark. ~ Robert Bloch,
225:God is always in my life, and that's the most important thing to me. ~ Lenny Kravitz,
226:One of the most important things for an actor is to observe humanity. ~ Carla Gugino,
227:The most important thing about a technology is how it changes people. ~ Jaron Lanier,
228:The most important thing a garden needs is the shadow of a gardener. ~ Joanna Cannon,
229:The most important thing for any of us to be in our jobs is curious. ~ Ginni Rometty,
230:The most important thing in the world is to hold your soul aloft. ~ Gustave Flaubert,
231:The most important thing is for you to believe in what you are doing. ~ Debbi Fields,
232:...the most important things we need to manage can't be measured. ~ W Edwards Deming,
233:Work is the least important thing and family is the most important. ~ Jerry Seinfeld,
234:You must never stop believing. That’s the most important thing.” The ~ Anthony Doerr,
235:Falling in love with God is the most important thing a person can do. ~ John Eldredge,
236:Gotta use your brain, it's the most important part of your equipment. ~ Kevin Andrews,
237:If you're into what you're playing, that's the most important thing. ~ James Hetfield,
238:In picture-making the writer is the most important cog in the wheel. ~ Samuel Goldwyn,
239:I think that limitations are the most important part of any art form ~ Lars von Trier,
240:I've got a happy marriage, which is the most important singular thing. ~ Denis Healey,
241:Of course, parents are the most important people in a child's life. ~ Hillary Clinton,
242:The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears. ~ James Mattis,
243:The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said. ~ Peter Drucker,
244:The most important thing is to believe that you can reach your goals. ~ Brian P Moran,
245:The most important thing is to keep your team as small as possible. ~ Mark Zuckerberg,
246:Whatever anybody says, the most important thing in life is to be happy. ~ Orhan Pamuk,
247:With TV, the most important thing is just to get people to turn it on. ~ Miranda Otto,
248:According to Plato, "The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~ Anonymous,
249:As long as we are enjoying ourselves, that's the most important thing ~ Tony Fernandes,
250:Economic growth is the most important initiative every governor faces. ~ Dave Heineman,
251:For taijutsu, the flexibility of the legs is the most important ~ Toshitsugu Takamatsu,
252:Fun is the most important. If you do stuff for money, it never works out. ~ Ina Garten,
253:I'll be truthful. The weekly paycheck is the most important thing to me. ~ Bela Lugosi,
254:In madness, I thought I was the most important person in the world. ~ John Forbes Nash,
255:Perfect balance: one of the most important conditions of a growing peace. ~ The Mother,
256:The most important knowledge in the world is gospel knowledge. ~ Joseph Fielding Smith,
257:The most important question in the world is, 'Why is the child crying?' ~ Alice Walker,
258:The sex element is the most important in the business. You must sell sex ~ Bobby Darin,
259:Being a mother is probably the most important thing in my life right now. ~ Halle Berry,
260:Education is one of the most important tools that you can give somebody. ~ Tyler Hilton,
261:Everyone is the most important person in the world to themselves. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana,
262:In kicking the balls, the most important thing was never to hesitate. ~ Haruki Murakami,
263:One of the most important lessons a leader can learn is how trust works. ~ Lolly Daskal,
264:Reusing and recycling our materials is the most important thing we can do. ~ Nikki Reed,
265:Some of the most unforgettable don’ts teach us the most important dos of life ~ Namrata,
266:The death of Baldr is one of the most important moments in the mythology. ~ John Lindow,
267:The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case. ~ George W Bush,
268:The most important part of every business is to know what ought to be done. ~ Columella,
269:The most important thing any woman can do is promote her inner well-being ~ Donna Karan,
270:Thinking is one of the most important weapons in dealing with problems ~ Nelson Mandela,
271:Thinking is the hardest work we can do, and among the most important ~ Richard J Foster,
272:Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most important thing I have ~ Louise Bourgeois,
273:Cofounder relationships are among the most important in the entire company. ~ Sam Altman,
274:Conceptual integrity is the most important consideration in system design. ~ Fred Brooks,
275:Getting reelected is the most important job every senator thinks he has. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
276:I think a sense of humor is the most important thing anyone can have. ~ Carolina Herrera,
277:Just want to make sure you’re happy. That’s the most important thing to me ~ Celia Aaron,
278:Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. ~ Pema Ch dr n,
279:Responsibility is the most important ability that a person can possess. ~ John C Maxwell,
280:Sometimes the single-syllable conversations are the most important ones. ~ Thea Harrison,
281:The most important choice you make is what you choose to make important. ~ Michael Neill,
282:the most important word in the language has but two letters: is. Is. ~ Clarice Lispector,
283:To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous. ~ Plato,
284:When I approach a story or movie, the story is the most important thing. ~ Alexandre Aja,
285:But the most important thing is, Enron did not cause the California crisis. ~ Kenneth Lay,
286:George Bush was for me the most important ally on the road to German unity. ~ Helmut Kohl,
287:Image is the most important thing about someone's career and longevity. ~ Jessica Simpson,
288:In reality, the most important things happen when you don't look for them. ~ Phil Donahue,
289:one of the most important components of homeschooling is worldview education. ~ Anonymous,
290:Strong motivation is the most important factor in getting you to the top ~ Edmund Hillary,
291:The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have. ~ Padmasree Warrior,
292:The most important belief we possess is a true knowledge of who God is. ~ Neil T Anderson,
293:The most important quality on the spiritual path is courage,” said Gandhi. ~ Paulo Coelho,
294:The most important things are hardest to say, because words diminish them. ~ Stephen King,
295:The most important things in a friendship didn't have to be said out loud. ~ Elise Broach,
296:What we spend our time on is probably the most important decision we make. ~ Ray Kurzweil,
297:You must always remember, the most important fashion accessory is the condom. ~ Lady Gaga,
298:But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you. ~ A A Milne,
299:Getting married and settling down isn't the most important thing in my life. ~ Liam Neeson,
300:I believe that cuisine is the most important link between nature and culture. ~ Alex Atala,
301:Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor. ~ Hesiod,
302:Say it with me now, brothers and sisters: Lunch is the most important meal ~ Daniel H Pink,
303:The fate of the living planet is the most important issue facing mankind. ~ Gaylord Nelson,
304:The most important moment is now. Learn to live in it and savor it fully. ~ Robin S Sharma,
305:The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by failures. ~ Humphry Davy,
306:The most important part of an introduction always occurs in one's absence. ~ Kate Zambreno,
307:The most important part of a story is the piece of it you don't know. ~ Barbara Kingsolver,
308:The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. ~ Warren Buffett,
309:The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself. ~ Diane von Furstenberg,
310:The most important thing,” he said, “is to be present in the face of fear. ~ Gary Ferguson,
311:The most important things in your life are almost always impossible to predict. ~ Joe Meno,
312:The most important tool of the theoretical physicist is his wastebasket. ~ Albert Einstein,
313:The most important use of NVC may be in developing self-compassion. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg,
314:Yeah, I'm a thrill seeker, but crikey, education's the most important thing. ~ Steve Irwin,
315:You can have talent and strength, but the most important is determination. ~ Lyoto Machida,
316:Cathode-ray tubes are the most important items in a television receiver. ~ John Logie Baird,
317:Football is the most important of the less important things in the world. ~ Carlo Ancelotti,
318:Happiness for me is getting to write about the most important things I know. ~ Richard Ford,
319:He knows that the most important words in all languages are the small words. ~ Paulo Coelho,
320:In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work ~ Sol LeWitt,
321:It has thick skin, and all the most important thinkers have become part of it. ~ N D Wilson,
322:I think the most important thing that marijuana does is it affects the brain. ~ Tommy Chong,
323:Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. We ~ Pema Ch dr n,
324:Next to gold and jewelry, health is the most important thing you can have. ~ Phyllis Diller,
325:Some people are so smart that they’re dumb about the most important things. ~ Martin Jensen,
326:Sometimes the most important job advertising can do, is to clarify the obvious. ~ Jay Chiat,
327:That's the most important thing. If I keep reading, maybe I can hold my own. ~ Daniel Keyes,
328:That’s the most important thing. If I keep reading, maybe I can hold my own. ~ Daniel Keyes,
329:The airmen were considered the most important passengers on the carriers. ~ James D Bradley,
330:The most important investment ability of all is emotional discipline. ~ William J Bernstein,
331:The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
332:The most important part of seeking victory is defining it first,” Tisis said. ~ Brent Weeks,
333:The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet. ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
334:The most important quality for a judge is open- mindedness to the arguments. ~ Samuel Alito,
335:The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become. ~ John Ortberg,
336:The most important thing about power is to make sure you don't have to use it. ~ Edwin Land,
337:The most important thing in life is to see to it that you are never beaten. ~ Andre Malraux,
338:The most important thing is to remain active and to love what you are doing. ~ Leslie Caron,
339:The most important thing people did for me was to expose me to new things. ~ Temple Grandin,
340:To be happy is, I guess, the most important thing in life. ~ Mary Crown Princess of Denmark,
341:Trying to ground everything in reality was the most important thing to me. ~ Rupert Sanders,
342:Turbulence is the most important unsolved problem of classical physics. ~ Richard P Feynman,
343:Amongst all unimportant subjects, football is by far the most important. ~ Pope John Paul II,
344:Bringing up a child in a loving relationship is the most important thing. ~ Eric Stonestreet,
345:Confidence is the most important quality in all athlete-coach relationships. ~ Franz Stampfl,
346:Education was the most important value in our home when I was growing up. ~ Caroline Kennedy,
347:Explaining why you love something is one of the most important jobs on Earth ~ Caitlin Moran,
348:I have a hunch the most important reason we're going to space is not known now. ~ Burt Rutan,
349:It's one of the most important things in life to provide someone with a job. ~ Ayelet Shaked,
350:I want them to stain your soul, because these words are the most important. ~ Colleen Hoover,
351:I watch a film and the most important thing to me is what I think of the movie. ~ Clive Owen,
352:Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton,
353:One of the most important lessons I ever learnt was to stop fearing rejection. ~ Marisa Peer,
354:One of the most important things you can accomplish is just being yourself. ~ Dwayne Johnson,
355:Sounds like a thankless job.

Sometimes the most important ones are. ~ Regina Jennings,
356:The most important piece of equipment after the camera is a good pair of shoes. ~ David Hurn,
357:The most important things are the hardest to say because words diminish them. ~ Stephen King,
358:Cowspiracy may be the most important film made to inspire saving the planet. ~ Louie Psihoyos,
359:Explaining why you love something is one of the most important jobs on earth. ~ Caitlin Moran,
360:Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too. ~ Yogi Berra,
361:Myself, first of all, I am a Jew. And that is the most important thing for me. ~ Ariel Sharon,
362:Power can do everything but the most important thing: it cannot control love. ~ Philip Yancey,
363:The most important career decision you'll make is who your life partner is. ~ Sheryl Sandberg,
364:The most important opinion, of both my work and my conduct in life, is my own. ~ Alan Cumming,
365:The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity. ~ Zig Ziglar,
366:The most important playwright's gift is to hit your time and speak to your time. ~ David Hare,
367:The most important thing for entrepreneurs is not to be put off by failure. ~ Richard Branson,
368:The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said. ~ Peter F Drucker,
369:The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. ~ Stephen King,
370:The most important things in life happen over conversations while eating. ~ Geoffrey Zakarian,
371:This is perhaps the most important book on evolutionary genetics ever written ~ Ronald Fisher,
372:For dreams to come true, it requires diligence. Believing is the most important thing! ~ Yunho,
373:I never thought of myself as the leader. The most important person, perhaps. ~ Freddie Mercury,
374:...in life it is often the tiny details that end up being the most important. ~ Daniel Handler,
375:It's the same story with a few crucial additions; the most important one is you. ~ J K Rowling,
376:My education is the most important thing so I always have to make time for it. ~ Jackson Guthy,
377:One of the most important jobs of the youth is to make the elderly happy. ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
378:One of the most important tools that a filmmaker has are his/her notes. ~ Francis Ford Coppola,
379:Only those in comfortable circumstances think love is the most important thing. ~ Mason Cooley,
380:Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention ~ Rachel Naomi Remen,
381:Really being friends is the most important part, I think, of any relationship. ~ Truman Capote,
382:Some of the most important stories don't lend themselves to television treatment. ~ Kurt Loder,
383:The most important education you get is your own - the one you learn in solitude. ~ Erica Jong,
384:The most important investment of our time is in our people and in our youth. ~ Nouman Ali Khan,
385:the most important rule of cyberspace—computers don’t lie but liars can compute. ~ Terry Hayes,
386:The most important thing in life for you is your positive stance in life! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
387:The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. ~ Pope Francis,
388:The one way the world hasn't changed: teaching is still the most important job. ~ George Lucas,
389:when we use a network, the most important asset we get is access to one another. ~ Clay Shirky,
390:Yeah, but Jesus is the most important thing to me and I want to be bold about it. ~ Jonny Lang,
391:And the most important lesson I learned is that I’m not a victim—I’m a survivor. ~ Elle Kennedy,
392:Faith in Jesus is the most important event in the history of a child’s life. ~ Elizabeth George,
393:I believe that the most important condition for faith is sensitivity to beauty. ~ Martin Walser,
394:I hope to have communion with the people, that is the most important thing. ~ Pope John Paul II,
395:In Bowdrie’s limited vocabulary, to be responsible was the most important word. ~ Louis L Amour,
396:I think the most important thing when you're planning a meal is... balance. ~ Travis Lane Stork,
397:Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. ~ Steve Jobs,
398:The most important part of living is not the living but the pondering upon it. ~ Sinclair Lewis,
399:The most important survival ability for any life form is the ability to change. ~ Frank Herbert,
400:The most important thing about getting somewhere is starting right where we are. ~ Bruce Barton,
401:The most important thing about virtue is to talk as if you're in favor of it. ~ Loraine Despres,
402:The most important thing for a good marriage is to learn how to argue peaceably. ~ Anita Ekberg,
403:The most important thing is to believe in yourself and know that you can do it. ~ Gabby Douglas,
404:The most important things in a friendship didn’t have to be said out loud. James ~ Elise Broach,
405:There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. ~ Edward de Bono,
406:The telephone is the most important single technological resource of later life. ~ Alex Comfort,
407:We exist to serve our community. That's the most important mind-set to maintain. ~ Chris Brogan,
408:When you know where somebody is, you know the most important thing about them. ~ John Darnielle,
409:You’re not asking the wrong question. Is it the most important question, though? ~ Kennedy Ryan,
410:Compassion was the most important, perhaps the sole law of human existence. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
411:I do appreciate that the most important thing as manager is to get good results. ~ Stuart Pearce,
412:It’s like life: sometimes the littlest thing turns out to be the most important. ~ Joyce Maynard,
413:Life is a long drop down, Marcus. The most important thing is knowing how to fall. ~ Jo l Dicker,
414:Sometimes you don’t know the most important things,” Tavi said. “You believe them. ~ Jim Butcher,
415:The Manchurian Candidate was the most important movie I was in, let's face it. ~ Angela Lansbury,
416:The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. ~ John Dewey,
417:The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. ~ Albert Einstein,
418:The most important step in developing skillful speech is to think before speaking. ~ Allan Lokos,
419:The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know. ~ Barbara Kingsolver,
420:But the most important harvest, after gleaning for frumenty, was the blackberries. ~ D H Lawrence,
421:During labor the most important thing is to get primal and surrender to the process. ~ Ricki Lake,
422:Humans are the most important entity in the universe … only to most people. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana,
423:Humility is a fantastic trait and is one of the most important things we can have ~ Dennis Prager,
424:I think that's the most important thing-two things really, have fun and be yourself. ~ Asher Roth,
425:One of the most important skills a mentor must teach an apprentice is how to fight. ~ Erin Hunter,
426:The management of fertility is one of the most important functions of adulthood. ~ Germaine Greer,
427:The most important aspect of being on a spiritual path may be to just keep moving. ~ Pema Chodron,
428:The most important conversation is the one you are having with yourself. When ~ Robert T Kiyosaki,
429:The most important question we must ask ourselves is, 'Are we being good ancestors?' ~ Jonas Salk,
430:The most important thing for staying in shape is having fun with your workouts. ~ Erin Heatherton,
431:The most important thing to me is the fact that I want him with my whole heart. ~ Haruki Murakami,
432:The most important thing we ever have to learn in life is to live with our choices. ~ Ann Rinaldi,
433:The thing that's important for me is to remember what's the most important thing. ~ George W Bush,
434:Truth is always the most important thing, even when it leads us into dark places. ~ Deborah Ellis,
435:When people ask me what the most important thing is in life, I answer: 'Just breathe.' ~ Yoko Ono,
436:You must never stop believing. That's the most important thing."
- Madam Manec ~ Anthony Doerr,
437:But the most important thing for you to understand is this: all things want to open. ~ Neil Gaiman,
438:For most businesses, America is the most important asset on their balance sheet. ~ Hillary Clinton,
439:I like to spend time with my family - that's the most important thing in my life. ~ Tommy Hilfiger,
440:Love has always been the most important business in my life; I should say the only one. ~ Stendhal,
441:seeking happiness is the most important quest, and achieving it is life’s best goal. ~ Diane Capri,
442:Sometimes, it's not getting what we want that offers us the most important Lessons ~ Joseph Boyden,
443:Sometimes, it turns out, the most important decisions in life are made by your dog. ~ Adam Gidwitz,
444:The beginning is the most important part...for that is the time character is being formed. ~ Plato,
445:The extension of life beyond Earth is the most important thing we can do as a species. ~ Elon Musk,
446:The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself. ~ John Fowles,
447:The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters. ~ Audrey Hepburn,
448:The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. ~ Warren Buffett,
449:The most important thing you do everyday you live is deciding not to kill yourself. ~ Albert Camus,
450:The most important thing you must decide to do every day is put the Lord first. ~ Elizabeth George,
451:Think about the most important things in life and set hard boundaries to protect them. ~ Chris Yeh,
452:To me, the most important thing in life is to be a human being. Second is acting. ~ Peter Stormare,
453:What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us ~ A W Tozer,
454:Whatever mistakes I make, you are the most important person in the world to me. ~ Kristen Callihan,
455:When the day is done the most important thing is loving people and sharing love. ~ Madonna Ciccone,
456:You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever. ~ Stephenie Meyer,
457:Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. ~ George S Patton,
458:Freedom of belief and worship is the most important guarantee of social peace. ~ Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
459:I think the most important thing for me is putting out records that document ideas. ~ Kieran Hebden,
460:My priority, the most important thing in my life is my family, my wife and my son. ~ Novak Djokovic,
461:Ownership is not the most important thing. IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT COUNTS. Nothing ~ Felix Dennis,
462:Pleasure is one of the most important things in life, as important as food or drink. ~ Irving Stone,
463:Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. ~ C J Mahaney,
464:Sex is the most important sort of adult play. If you can't relax here you never will ~ Alex Comfort,
465:Sometimes the most important things that we do are things we cannot measure. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz,
466:The most important question in American cinema, I've learned, is 'When is lunch?' ~ Tommy Lee Jones,
467:The most important thing in changing human behavior is the person's motivation. ~ Milton H Erickson,
468:The most important thing in my father's life? World peace. Me and my brother. My mom. ~ Sean Lennon,
469:The most important thing is to go out and see the stars, not to see them in books. ~ Edouard Boubat,
470:The relationship with yourself is the most important relationship you’ll ever have. ~ Judith Orloff,
471:To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti,
472:What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. ~ A W Tozer,
473:But the truth is that for the most important decisions, there can be no certainty ~ Malcolm Gladwell,
474:I have come to the conclusion that the most important element in human life is faith. ~ Rose Kennedy,
475:Knowledge is a tangible asset, quite often the most important tool in your work. ~ A P J Abdul Kalam,
476:Most importantly fighters in my day knew the most important art in boxing - feinting. ~ Jack Johnson,
477:My father was an actor, and we have the most important theatre company in Montreal. ~ Gilles Duceppe,
478:The link and the tag may be two of the most important inventions of the last 50 years. ~ Kevin Kelly,
479:The most important decision you'll ever make is how to spend the present moment ! ~ Gaurav Dagaonkar,
480:The most important element of democracy, I believe, is the protection of minorities. ~ Shahin Najafi,
481:The most important part of ourselves is the mind and it has been rather inaccessible. ~ Ariel Garten,
482:The most important service to others is service to those who are not like yourself. ~ J Irwin Miller,
483:The most important thing for a judge is - curiously enough - judgment. ~ Patrick Devlin Baron Devlin,
484:The most important thing for old guys is never start going down the stairs sideways. ~ Dick Van Dyke,
485:The selection and following of a spiritual guide is the most important duty of a Sufi. ~ Idries Shah,
486:We tend to become what the most important person in our life thinks we will become. ~ John C Maxwell,
487:What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.  ~ A W Tozer,
488:What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.1 ~ Chip Ingram,
489:As a writer, the most important thing for me is to continue to write, no matter where I am. ~ Bei Dao,
490:For human beings, love is the most important fruit of experience in the sense world. ~ Rudolf Steiner,
491:for we are engaged here in the most important pursuit in history: the search for meaning ~ John Green,
492:I think [Sacrifice of Isaac] is the most important event in the Bible except for Sinai. ~ Elie Wiesel,
493:Learning how to learn on his own proved one of the most important lessons of his life. ~ John Markoff,
494:Peter Pan is perhaps the most important thing, to me, that I have ever done in theater. ~ Mary Martin,
495:Relationships are the most important thing in life, and friends are a part of that. ~ Nicholas Sparks,
496:Seeing & savoring Jesus Christ is the most important seeing and savoring you'll ever do. ~ John Piper,
497:The choice of when to be a chooser may be the most important choice we have to make. ~ Barry Schwartz,
498:The education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. ~ Robert Lewis Dabney,
499:The most important object in Boy Scout training is to educate, not instruct. ~ Baden Powell de Aquino,
500:The most important question a person can ask is, "Is the Universe a friendly place? ~ Albert Einstein,
501:The most important thing about a family is that all the people in it love each other. ~ Lesl a Newman,
502:The most important thing about a family is that all the people in it love each other. ~ Leslea Newman,
503:The most important thing for a forward is speed of thought. Top players read the game. ~ Samuel Eto o,
504:The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen. ~ Duke Ellington,
505:The most important thing in time management is knowing where to start fixing the mess. ~ Christ Lewis,
506:The most important thing in your life is your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. ~ Andy Stanley,
507:The role of Rimbaud is one of the most important roles to play for a young actor. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio,
508:To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. ~ Simone Weil,
509:A girl’s relationship with her father is the most important male relationship of her life. ~ Jenny Han,
510:As a queen I speak about unity and respect. I think that is the most important thing. ~ Gabriela Isler,
511:But a woman should not marry where there is no respect. Respect is the most important thing. ~ Zen Cho,
512:For the last five or six years the most important thing in my life has been my family. ~ Jimmy Connors,
513:If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important Rule of Beauty. “Who cares?” ~ Tina Fey,
514:I think when you're trying to improve, the most important thing is to always have a plan. ~ Hank Haney,
515:Learning how to manage your money is one of the most important things you'll ever do. ~ Sophia Amoruso,
516:Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting, and of all relationships. ~ Jodie Foster,
517:Money is not the most important thing in the world. Love is. Fortunately, I love money. ~ Jackie Mason,
518:The Export-Import Bank is one of the most important tools America has to create jobs. ~ Maria Cantwell,
519:The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control. ~ Herbert Spencer,
520:The most important ingredient that goes into a pie is the love that goes into making it. ~ Sarah Weeks,
521:The most important problem for our world to solve is the inequality of men and women. ~ Frederick Lenz,
522:The most important responsibility we have on this planet is to take care of one another. ~ Miley Cyrus,
523:The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting ~ Steven Pressfield,
524:The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. ~ Theodore Hesburgh,
525:The most important thing for morale was to maintain a united front among the officers. ~ Peter Heather,
526:The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will ~ Charles Dickens,
527:The most important thing in life will always be family. The people right here, right now. ~ Vin Diesel,
528:The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters. ~ Audrey Hepburn,
529:The most important things are the hardest things to say, because words diminish them... ~ Stephen King,
530:The most important words in the English language are not 'I love you' but 'it's benign.' ~ Woody Allen,
531:THE WEALTH OF NATIONS is one of the most important and influential books ever written. It ~ Adam Smith,
532:Treat everyone you meet as though they are the most important person you'll meet today. ~ Roger Dawson,
533:Attitude is an inner concept. It is the most important thing you can develop in your life. ~ Wayne Dyer,
534:Courage is the most important of all the virtues, without it, you can practice no other. ~ Maya Angelou,
535:I don't think of myself as a policy expert. I think education is the most important thing. ~ Jenna Bush,
536:If my lyrics mean something special to someone... that's the most important thing to me. ~ Dia Frampton,
537:I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones; they're the most important. ~ Tove Jansson,
538:Investing in yourself is the most important investment you’ll ever make in your life. ~ Timothy Ferriss,
539:I pay my teachers very well, because pedagogy is the most important of all the sciences, ~ Boris Akunin,
540:I think the most important is when I was young, I learnt martial arts; that is my special key. ~ Jet Li,
541:The most important step to living a better life is to choose to put God first daily. ~ Elizabeth George,
542:The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in ~ Morrie Schwartz,
543:The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. ~ Mitch Albom,
544:Time and freedom: those are the most important things that people can buy with money. ~ Haruki Murakami,
545:Being negative is not how we make progress, and the most important things are not zero sum. ~ Larry Page,
546:I consider him [Alexander von Humboldt] the most important scientist whom I have met. ~ Thomas Jefferson,
547:I hold that the parentheses are by far the most important parts of a non-business letter. ~ D H Lawrence,
548:I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion. ~ Billie Jean King,
549:Kindness always works with the most important person — YOU. Be kind for you, not others. ~ Bryant McGill,
550:Loving becomes, and the ability to love, becomes one of the most important things in life. ~ Erich Fromm,
551:Often, in great discovery the most important thing is that a certain question is found. ~ Max Wertheimer,
552:One of the most important disciplines in journalism is to challenge your working premises. ~ Bill Keller,
553:[Question: What do you think was the most important physics idea to emerge this year?] ~ Stephen Hawking,
554:The link and the tag may be two of the most important inventions of the last 50 years. You ~ Kevin Kelly,
555:The most important key to a more romantic life: you have to be willing to pay attention ~ Thomas Kinkade,
556:The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will'. ~ Charles Dickens,
557:The most important thing in making money is not letting your losses get out of hand. ~ Martin S Schwartz,
558:The most important thing to do in your life is to not interfere with somebody else's life. ~ Frank Zappa,
559:The most important thing women have to do is to stir up the zeal of women themselves. ~ John Stuart Mill,
560:The world should be full of love. Love. Love is the most important thing in the world. ~ Michael Jackson,
561:Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture. ~ Lydia M Child,
562:I write about sex because often it feels like the most important thing in the world. ~ Jeanette Winterson,
563:Money isn't the most important thing. It is important, of course. I am not Mahatma Gandhi. ~ Jurgen Klopp,
564:Out of all the opportunities Britain offered us, choice was the most important thing. ~ Balli Kaur Jaswal,
565:Out of all the things I do, I think being a mom is the most important and satisfying. ~ Michelle M Pillow,
566:People who say that money isn't the most important thing in the world are usually broke. ~ Malcolm Forbes,
567:Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests. ~ P T Barnum,
568:That's the most important thing for me in TV, telling the story to as many people as we can. ~ Nick Faldo,
569:The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. ~ David Goggins,
570:the most important days of your existence don’t always announce themselves in obvious ways. ~ John Scalzi,
571:The most important people at Liverpool Football Club are the people who want to be here. ~ Kenny Dalglish,
572:The most important thing about the ‘next time’ is that there may not be a next time! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,
573:The most important thing is not victory, the most important thing is don't get defeated. ~ Rickson Gracie,
574:The most important thing I’ve learned about nutrition is you need to deserve your carbs ~ Timothy Ferriss,
575:The most important thing you learn at school is that learning only happens by being taught. ~ Ivan Illich,
576:there is you and you. this is a relationship. this is the most important relationship. – home ~ Anonymous,
577:This will be the most important decision of your life, the individual whom you marry. ~ Gordon B Hinckley,
578:What we believe is the most important, because what we do flows out of what we believe. ~ Emily P Freeman,
579:Hide the ideas, but so that people find them. The most important will be the most hidden. ~ Robert Bresson,
580:Ina May Gaskin is the most important person in maternity care in North America, bar none. ~ Marsden Wagner,
581:Some of the most important conversations I've ever had occurred at my family's dinner table. ~ Bob Ehrlich,
582:The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history. ~ Ha Joon Chang,
583:The most important civil liberty... is to stay alive and to be free from violence and death. ~ John Howard,
584:The most important duty in any friendship was calling the other person on their bullcrap, ~ Hailey Edwards,
585:The most important issue of the 21st century will be the condition of the global environment. ~ Ian McHarg,
586:the most important quality of an inept person is to rely on popular belief and hearsay. ~ Marie de Gournay,
587:The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between. ~ Norton Juster,
588:the most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t work. ~ Gary Paulsen,
589:The most important thing about a fighter is something you can't see, and that's his heart. ~ Kenny Florian,
590:The most important thing is to have a more open and honest dialogue about gender issues. ~ Sheryl Sandberg,
591:We have to remember, sometimes the most important history is the history we're making today. ~ J K Rowling,
592:What's the most important quality a person could have, something that would benefit us all? ~ Sue Townsend,
593:And people is the most important part of my job. I spend one third of my time on people. ~ Jeffrey R Immelt,
594:Do what you would do for free, having passion for what you do is the most important thing. ~ Warren Buffett,
595:I'm just very thankful. And I say that a lot because that's the most important message. ~ Pharrell Williams,
596:I think the most important thing is to keep active, and to hope that your mind stays active. ~ Jane Goodall,
597:Massive elimination is the most important step and the most neglected step for entrepreneurs. ~ Tim Ferriss,
598:Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us. ~ R C Sproul,
599:Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing? ~ Pema Chodron,
600:The most important day of a person's education is the first day of school, not Graduation Day. ~ Harry Wong,
601:To me, that is one of the most important principles of life: Never leave your friends behind. ~ Buzz Aldrin,
602:In all forms of magick, the imagination or image-making faculty is the most important factor ~ Kenneth Grant,
603:People tend to become what the most important people in their lives think they will become. ~ John C Maxwell,
604:She noticed the most important thing of all, which is the dance lesson within the performance. ~ Zadie Smith,
605:Small things are not small at all. They are the most important things of all. And they add up. ~ Mel Robbins,
606:The African-America n experience is one of the most important threads in the American tapestry. ~ Bill Frist,
607:The beginning is the most important part, especially when dealing with anything young and tender. ~ Socrates,
608:The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach. ~ Oscar Wilde,
609:The most important aspect of detente today is that there is no ideological detente. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
610:The most important figures for management of any organization are unknown and unknowable. ~ W Edwards Deming,
611:The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intention of its user. ~ C A R Hoare,
612:•The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. ~ Morrie Schwartz,
613:The most important thing is to forecast where customers are moving, and be in front of them. ~ Philip Kotler,
614:The most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear. ~ W H Auden,
615:We trust Hillary Clinton, my wife and I, we trust her with the most important thing in our life. ~ Tim Kaine,
616:Your name is the most important thing you own. Don't ever do anything to disgrace or cheapen it. ~ Ben Hogan,
617:And the most important thing you can do is learn to edit yourself. And then go back and rewrite. ~ Kurt Loder,
618:Eventually, I learned to listen, which is without a doubt the most important missionary skill. ~ D L Mayfield,
619:Gaiety is one of the most important elements I brought to fashion. I brought it through color. ~ Emilio Pucci,
620:Good health is the most important thing. More than success. More than money. More than power. ~ Lee Strasberg,
621:I think there's no doubt that George Washington was the most important American to this time. ~ Kevin Gutzman,
622:Mother is her son's first god; she must teach him the most important lesson of all - how to love. ~ T F Hodge,
623:My mom and dad built our family on faith in God. It’s the most important part of our lives. ~ Karen Kingsbury,
624:My passion. My commitment. This is the most important thing in my life other than my family. ~ Howard Schultz,
625:The most important daily habit we can possess is to remind ourselves of the gospel. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
626:The most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but adaptability. ~ Charles Darwin,
627:The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions. ~ Edmund Burke,
628:The most important relationship throughout your entire life is the one within; cherish it. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru,
629:Timidity prompted by past failures causes investors to miss the most important bull markets. ~ Walter Schloss,
630:Fighting for democracy and freedom was one of the most important things he’d done in the Army, ~ Toni Anderson,
631:I believe it to be one of the most important discipleship resources we have produced at Ligonier. ~ R C Sproul,
632:I demanded two weeks of rehearsal because to me as an actor, that's the most important time. ~ Christine Lahti,
633:If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: who cares? ~ Tina Fey,
634:I see now... The most important things I have... I lose them, no matter how much I care for them. ~ Kaori Yuki,
635:I think good comedic timing is one of the most important things about a person’s personality. ~ Colleen Hoover,
636:I think one of the most important things I can give my children is the right to be themselves. ~ Samantha Bond,
637:Knowing is NOT the most important thing. To be able to FIND OUT is more important than knowing. ~ Sugata Mitra,
638:My public life was so demanding that I wasn't doing the things that I deemed the most important. ~ Patti Smith,
639:Of all the artists who emerged in the '80s, I think perhaps Cindy Sherman is the most important. ~ Chuck Close,
640:That first starfish you choose to toss back into the ocean is the most important one: It is you.   ~ Anonymous,
641:The car buzzed at her, as if a door ajar was the most important problem in her life right now. ~ Grady Hendrix,
642:The man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages. ~ Henry David Thoreau,
643:The most important job you will ever have is your commitment to a promise you made to someone. ~ Robert Cheeke,
644:The most important phrases in trauma therapy are “Notice that” and “What happens next? ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
645:The most important thing is our dignity. If we have that we can survive on bread and water. ~ Richard Flanagan,
646:The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them. ~ Frank Clark,
647:The place where you live - your home - is one of the most important things in a body's life. ~ Jeannette Walls,
648:there is you and you.
this is a relationship.
this is the most important relationship. ~ Nayyirah Waheed,
649:The true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it. ~ Paulo Coelho,
650:Access to basic quality health care is one of the most important domestic issues facing our nation. ~ Ed Pastor,
651:From one generation to the next, The Beatles will remain the most important rock band of all time. ~ Dave Grohl,
652:Happiness is the most important thing in the world, without it, you live a life of depression. ~ Marilyn Monroe,
653:I believe that one of the most important institutions in a democratic society is a free press. ~ Jeremy Scahill,
654:I do a cover of a Velvet Underground song, and they were one of the most important bands, for me. ~ Martin Gore,
655:In our obsessive wish to arrive, we often forget the most important thing, which is the journey. ~ Paulo Coelho,
656:No matter what happens, always Keep your childhood innocence. It's the most important thing. ~ Federico Fellini,
657:Perhaps the most important reason for self-disclosure is that without it we cannot truly love. ~ Sidney Jourard,
658:Some of the most important things to look for when checking underneath a fund’s hood are its fees. ~ Suze Orman,
659:The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is. ~ Sam Altman,
660:The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you. ~ Lin Manuel Miranda,
661:The referee is going to be the most important person in the ring tonight besides the fighters. ~ George Foreman,
662:Water: it has no taste, no smell, no color, and yet it is the most important thing in the world. ~ Paulo Coelho,
663:He understood that the most important things in the world were the kind you made up for yourself. ~ Amber Sparks,
664:How much we know ourselves is extremely important but how we treat ourselves is the most important. ~ Bren Brown,
665:I believe that the story is the most important element of any medium whether it's theater, film, TV. ~ Chad Lowe,
666:I find that the thoughts spoken between the lines are the most important parts of a poem or story. ~ Lynn Cullen,
667:I know from growing up in the spotlight, as it were, that the most important thing is your family. ~ Kate Burton,
668:It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle,
669:It is very difficult to get people to focus on the most important things when you're in boom times. ~ Jeff Bezos,
670:It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with. ~ Ivan Reitman,
671:Now there are no priests or philosophers left, artists are the most important people in the world. ~ Roma Tearne,
672:One of the most important principles of success is developing the habit of going the extra mile. ~ Napoleon Hill,
673:One of the most important questions you could ask is: “What is God doing in the here and now? ~ Paul David Tripp,
674:One of the most important tools in contemporary educational research is value added analysis. ~ Malcolm Gladwell,
675:Protecting the integrity of every vote cast is among the most important duties I have as governor. ~ Pat McCrory,
676:Remember that the most important thing is to try and love other people as much as they love you. ~ David Sedaris,
677:The most important advance that the West has yet made is to develop a secularist moral tradition ~ Richard Rorty,
678:The most important force inside you for feeling better all the time is the will to get more fit. ~ Jeff Galloway,
679:The most important job you have is growing your people, giving them a chance to reach their dreams. ~ Jack Welch,
680:The most important thing about leadership is your character and the values that guide your life. ~ Brenda Barnes,
681:The most important thing about Spaceship Earth - an instruction book didn't come with it. ~ R Buckminster Fuller,
682:The most important thing... is not clicking the shutter... it is clicking with the subject. ~ Alfred Eisenstaedt,
683:The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world - and the most dangerous. ~ James Clavell,
684:You have the most important job of anyone today. Our kids need you to advocate for their futures. ~ George Lucas,
685:Coaching is the most important servant/leadership element in helping people accomplish their goals. ~ Bill Hybels,
686:In planning a war, the most important task is to understand what can be planned and what cannot. ~ William S Lind,
687:I think the most important thing about holding a concert is to enjoy the moment, rather than showing off. ~ Yunho,
688:My family's the most important thing to me right now, and I just want to go be with them right now. ~ Amanda Knox,
689:Psychology is probably the most important factor in the market - and one that is least understood. ~ David Dreman,
690:Tell her you love her every day, man. It’s the most important thing you can do for your marriage. ~ Jennifer Foor,
691:The most important are the eyes. In a fight if you look down out of fear you'll certainly be defeated ~ Mas Oyama,
692:‎The most important days in your life are the day you were born........and the day you find out why. ~ Mark Twain,
693:The most important job of an entrepreneur is to design the business before there is a business. ~ Robert Kiyosaki,
694:The most important outcome of education is to help students become independent of formal education. ~ Paul E Gray,
695:The most important question a human being has to face... What is it? The question, Why are we here? ~ Elie Wiesel,
696:The most important thing for me is the direct observation of nature in its light-filled existence. ~ August Macke,
697:The most important thing in this world is faith. Without faith you cannot communicate with God. ~ Akiane Kramarik,
698:The most important time to listen is when words are missing, that’s when hearts cry out the loudest. ~ Kim Holden,
699:The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time. ~ Jackie Robinson,
700:To me the most important thing in a piece of art is the thought. Technique is totally secondary. ~ Robert Bateman,
701:Two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding. ~ Donald A Norman,
702:We live in an age where revenge seems to be the most important thing for individuals and countries. ~ Liam Neeson,
703:I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare. ~ Maya Angelou,
704:I love marriage. I think it's a wonderful institution and it's the most important decision you make. ~ Isla Fisher,
705:I think an education is not only important, it is the most important thing you can do with your life. ~ Dean Kamen,
706:I think the most important beauty lesson I've learned from my mom is to be happy in what you do. ~ Gwyneth Paltrow,
707:It's one of the most important things at the end of the day, being able to say no to an investment. ~ Henry Kravis,
708:Maybe once you’ve been left by the most important person in your life, you can never be unleft again. ~ Amy Gentry,
709:My father once told me that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for. ~ Tana French,
710:My father told me once that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for. ~ Tana French,
711:...pride for men is like love for women. Very strong. The most important thing for men is pride. ~ Christie Watson,
712:The most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do. ~ Steve Jobs,
713:The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit... a reputation, character. ~ John D Rockefeller,
714:The most important things in our intimate lives can't be discussed with strangers, except in books. ~ Edmund White,
715:The most important things we talk about on Sundays are things to which we pay very little attention. ~ Erich Fromm,
716:What is the most important and valuable work that you do, in any field or profession? It’s thinking! ~ Brian Tracy,
717:You realise Group Captain that this might be the most important weather forecast in history? ~ Dwight D Eisenhower,
718:In todays economy, the most important resource is no longer labor, capital or land; it is knowledge ~ Peter Drucker,
719:I was starting to learn one of the most important lessons of online dating: the wisdom of saying no. ~ Sarah Hepola,
720:One of the most important things to remember about infant care is: don't change diapers in midstream. ~ Don Marquis,
721:Respect is the most important thing. Be respectful toward others and have respect for yourself. ~ Georges St Pierre,
722:The most important lesson I've learned is that the most productive exercises are simple and compound. ~ Markus Ruhl,
723:The most important lesson we learn in life is what creates pain for us and what creates pleasure. ~ Anthony Robbins,
724:The most important principle to understand about meditation is this: we meditate to know ourselves. ~ Sally Kempton,
725:The most important qualities a human can possess are an iron will and a persevering spirit, ~ Christina Baker Kline,
726:The most important thing is not to get what we want in prayer, but to accomplish what God wants. ~ Stormie Omartian,
727:The most important thing is this: to sacrifice what you are now for what you can become tomorrow. ~ Shannon L Alder,
728:The most important thing we're doing differently is that we talk openly about gender at Facebook. ~ Sheryl Sandberg,
729:The most important thing you can do is to understand the basic principle of eliminating question marks. ~ Anonymous,
730:To truly excel, you must also continue to create for the most important audience of all: yourself. ~ Jocelyn K Glei,
731:Whatever comes into your heart and mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. ~ A W Tozer,
732:What permaculturists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet. ~ David Suzuki,
733:Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous. ~ Georgia O Keeffe,
734:I think that's the most important thing you can do to be a real person - is to be honest with yourself. ~ Mike Dirnt,
735:Now there are no priests or philosophers left, artists are the most important people in the world. ~ Gerhard Richter,
736:One of the most important differences I see between prose and poetry is the music of the language. ~ Pattiann Rogers,
737:Perhaps the most important marketing step any business can take is to discover a way to be different. ~ John Jantsch,
738:Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not. ~ Mark Rippetoe,
739:The discovery of the power of our thoughts will prove to be the most important discovery of our time ~ William James,
740:The Jewish community is all about love and family, which is the most important thing in my life, too. ~ Gregg Sulkin,
741:The mirror we hold up to the person next to us is one of the most important pictures she will ever see. ~ Seth Godin,
742:The most important ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with other people. ~ Horace Mann,
743:The most important thing is to find collective solutions in diplomacy and I think that is possible. ~ Vladimir Putin,
744:They’ve never learned the most important rule of cyberspace—computers don’t lie but liars can compute. ~ Terry Hayes,
745:What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” —A. W. Tozer ~ Randy Alcorn,
746:Whenever it feels uncomfortable to tell the truth, that's often the most important time to tell it. ~ Jennifer Lopez,
747:Art is the most important thing to me in the entire world. It is my passion. Nothing else. End of story. ~ Sarah Lacy,
748:Focus and having energy is the most important goal when choosing my activities and how I treat myself. ~ Crystal Renn,
749:I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time. ~ Bill Gates,
750:Nearly everything I do is part of a master plan to make me the most important entertainer in the world. ~ Bobby Darin,
751:One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone. ~ Shannon L Alder,
752:Serbian history tells that family is the most important thing and you have to stick with the family. ~ Novak Djokovic,
753:That the truest experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it. ~ Paulo Coelho,
754:The most important key to successful investing can be summed up in just two words-asset allocation. ~ Michael LeBoeuf,
755:The most important personal-growth phrase you will ever hear a good leader say to you is “follow me. ~ John C Maxwell,
756:The most important surrender is the surrender of your character,your way of being,so that it may change. ~ The Mother,
757:The most important thing in a piece of music is to seduce people to the point where they start searching. ~ Brian Eno,
758:The most important thing in the face is the eyes, and if you can make the eyes talk, you're halfway there. ~ Ian Holm,
759:The most important thing is to be proud of the work that you put into something, and put the ego aside. ~ Alicia Keys,
760:This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn. ~ Eric Ries,
761:To belong. To have family, to feel safe and loved and be the most important person in someone’s life. ~ Susan Mallery,
762:What is the most important thing one learns in school? Self-esteem, support, and friendship. ~ Terry Tempest Williams,
763:Above any commercial success one might enjoy, one's reputation for honesty is the most important thing ~ George Carman,
764:Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr,
765:He has a way of watching her that makes her feel as if she is the most important thing in the world. ~ Gabriel Tallent,
766:In the long term the most important question for a company is not what you are but what you are becoming. ~ Gary Hamel,
767:My aim is to institute perpetual adoration," he said, for this is the "the most important activity. ~ Maximilian Kolbe,
768:My main interest in being a director, and the most important thing to me, is that world with the actors. ~ Matt Reeves,
769:That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it. ~ Paulo Coelho,
770:The most important body part is the mind. With the will and know-how, you can perform near miracles. ~ Stuart McRobert,
771:The most important debate is about whether the NT interprets the Old in line with the original OT meaning. ~ G K Beale,
772:The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe. ~ Albert Einstein,
773:The most important institution in society is the family. If the family breaks down, society breaks down. ~ Marco Rubio,
774:the most important lesson of language learning: what you study is more important than how you study. ~ Timothy Ferriss,
775:The most important part of your environment to be conscious of is the people you surround yourself with. ~ Jen Sincero,
776:The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and it needs to be centrally located. ~ Donald Knuth,
777:The most important thing to remember about food labels is that you should avoid foods that have labels. ~ Joel Fuhrman,
778:The most important thing you can ever know, is that whatever your purpose is, that's not your only choice. ~ Dan Wells,
779:The most important thought that ever occupied my mind is that of my individual responsibility to God. ~ Daniel Webster,
780:A father's death is the most important event, the more heartbreaking and poignant loss in a man's life. ~ Sigmund Freud,
781:Against my Scandinavian instincts, I decided to tell Bill about the most important thing I had ever done. ~ Hope Jahren,
782:Deciding what to keep on the basis of what sparks joy in your heart is the most important step in tidying. ~ Marie Kond,
783:Have a healthy mental attitude; that's the most important thing and the best thing you can do for yourself. ~ Arden Cho,
784:I believe...that education is not only the most important societal problem but the most interesting. ~ Katharine Graham,
785:It was enough that slander could ruin a woman, because her purity was the most important thing about her. ~ Jane Porter,
786:My friendship with the Steinway piano is one of the most important and beautiful things in my life. ~ Krystian Zimerman,
787:Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. ~ Barack Obama,
788:Parenting is the most important job on the planet next to keeping Gary Busey off the nation's highways. ~ Dennis Miller,
789:Sexuality is one of the most important ways in which we identify, establish, and maintain our boundaries. ~ Violet Blue,
790:The most important innovation in medicine to come in the next 10 years: the power of the human hand. ~ Abraham Verghese,
791:The most important thing about my profession is finding the truth, finding the reality of these shows. ~ Shuler Hensley,
792:The most important thing about priorities and posteriorities is not intelligent analysis but courage. ~ Peter F Drucker,
793:The most important thing is to figure out Your goal in life. If Your intentions and methods are correct, ~ Arjun Rampal,
794:The sensory deprivation chamber has been the most important tool that I've ever used for developing my mind ~ Joe Rogan,
795:Who you allow into your life, mind and heart are among the most important decisions you will ever make. ~ Bryant McGill,
796:All politics takes place on a slippery slope. The most important four words in politics are up to a point. ~ George Will,
797:Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act. ~ Jack Welch,
798:I feel like if the most important thing is that we love each other, everything else will fall into place. ~ Maisey Yates,
799:If you don't think you can do it, who will? You control the most important tool in success, your mind. ~ Jeffrey Gitomer,
800:I have understood that the most important things are tenderness and kindness. I can't do without them. ~ Brigitte Bardot,
801:I think life is the most important thing and you have to live that first and then you're art comes second. ~ Jenny Lewis,
802:I think that the most important thing a woman can have - next to talent, of course - is her hairdresser. ~ Joan Crawford,
803:It's a great experience just to understand that finally being well known is not the most important thing. ~ Rokia Traore,
804:I used to say I wanted somebody funny and intelligent, but kindness is the most important quality in a man. ~ Cat Deeley,
805:Learning is the most important thing, no mater how you do it, or where you do it, or who you do it with. ~ Saoirse Ronan,
806:Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all. ~ Philip Pullman,
807:The actual handbag is neither here nor there-- it's what you keep in it that's the most important thing. ~ Caitlin Moran,
808:The most important practical lesson than can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe. ~ Florence Nightingale,
809:The most important thing about winning is believing that you can win no matter who you are playing. ~ Lawrence Dallaglio,
810:The most important thing for me is my family, and my health and happiness, and making sure everyone's cool. ~ Dave Grohl,
811:The most important thing in coaching is communication. It's not what you say as much as what they absorb. ~ Red Auerbach,
812:The most important thing is to get the fish in quickly and leave it in the water. Forget the hero pose. ~ Yvon Chouinard,
813:There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. ~ Anonymous,
814:Transporting Americans is and should be one of the most important functions our government must address. ~ Michael Moore,
815:We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth. ~ William Anders,
816:We have to get used to the idea that at the most important crossroads in our life there are no signs. ~ Ernest Hemingway,
817:After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; ~ Henry David Thoreau,
818:CEOs believe that the most important skill needed to navigate today’s complex business world is creativity. ~ Emma Sepp l,
819:countless truths I desire to pass on to my children: being content with less is among the most important. ~ Joshua Becker,
820:Even if the most important person in your world rejects you, you are still real, and you are still okay. ~ Melody Beattie,
821:Humility is the most important quality in the spiritual life. When it is lacking spiritual growth stops. ~ Frederick Lenz,
822:I don't know what my favorite film of mine is... But I think the most important film I was in was Glory. ~ Morgan Freeman,
823:I learned the most important aspect of a mother’s love was not the intensity but its reliable consistency. ~ Tawni O Dell,
824:I think the most important thing any artist can do is to constantly push themselves and improve their craft. ~ Ami Vitale,
825:One of the most important social skills you need to learn is the ability to connect with people instantly. ~ Patrick King,
826:The most important causes of political arrangements and acts are found in the nature and behavior of man. ~ Kenneth Waltz,
827:The most important investment you can make is in yourself... nobody can tax it or take it away from you. ~ Warren Buffett,
828:The most important thing is that you actually care, that you do something to the very best of your ability ~ Jonathan Ive,
829:The most important word in the world of money is cash flow. The second most important word is leverage. ~ Robert Kiyosaki,
830:What's the most important thing in the world? It's love, and I look at that as an energy, not a sentiment. ~ Eddie Albert,
831:After Jackie Robinson the most important black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson, I really mean that. ~ Reggie Jackson,
832:Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez,
833:Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
834:As a leader, the most important earthly relationship you can cultivate is your relationship with yourself. ~ Ken Blanchard,
835:Everyone thinks their opinion is the most important, even when they have no clue about a situation.” “I know. ~ L H Cosway,
836:I think the most important thing people can do to save our planet and the human race is to empower women! ~ Robert Ballard,
837:It is not birth, marriage, or death, but gastrulation which is truly the most important time in your life. ~ Lewis Wolpert,
838:Love is the most important thing in life. If you don't have (a relationship), you're always looking for one. ~ Sheryl Crow,
839:One of the most important things that a woman can do in her life is to encourage another woman to succeed. ~ Michelle Lowe,
840:Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business. ~ Calvin Coolidge,
841:The control and understanding of our personal fears is one of the most important undertakings of our lives. ~ Helen Mirren,
842:The most important job of an editor is simplify, simplify simplify, and that usually means omitting things. ~ Keith Rabois,
843:The most important qualities a human can possess are an iron will and a persevering spirit,” Mamey ~ Christina Baker Kline,
844:The most important thing is to find people that you enjoy - friends that you enjoy playing music with. ~ Michael Glawogger,
845:All I can say is the most important part of being in a relationships that you love the person for who they are. ~ Liv Tyler,
846:But the most important thing I know is that I want the possibility of you more than the reality of [her]. ~ Caroline Kepnes,
847:I asked Dalai Lama the most important question that I think you could ask - if he had ever seen Caddyshack. ~ Jesse Ventura,
848:I believe that educating people to awaken into full consciousness is the most important thing we can do. ~ Elizabeth Lesser,
849:I don't think I'm really interested in having a celebrity relationship. The music is the most important thing. ~ Alex Parks,
850:I enjoyed every bit of my swimming career. I think that's the most important advice - to enjoy what you do ~ Summer Sanders,
851:I still believe nonfiction is the most important literature to come out of the second half of the 20th century. ~ Tom Wolfe,
852:It was therefore anti-Christ, and he knew that to expose it as such was the most important thing imaginable. ~ Eric Metaxas,
853:Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives. ~ Thomas Berry,
854:The most important assets for the election systems are trust and routine. Both are badly damaged already; ~ Malka Ann Older,
855:The most important skill in life is to learn the acceptance of that which you have not planned for yourself. ~ Lisa Wingate,
856:The most important story we'll ever write in life is our own-not with ink, but with our daily choices. ~ Richard Paul Evans,
857:The most important story we'll ever write in life is our own—not with ink, but with our daily choices. ~ Richard Paul Evans,
858:The most important thing is that Milosevic agreed to sit at the negotiating table with the Kosovo Albanians ~ Boris Yeltsin,
859:The most important thing to keep in mind is not that we are all the same, but that we are all equally weird. ~ Mohsin Hamid,
860:The most important thing you can ever know is that no matter what your purpose is, that's not your only choice. ~ Dan Wells,
861:The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes. —HAROLD B. LEE ~ Christine Carter,
862:This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: At the time, no one knew what was coming. ~ Haruki Murakami,
863:To investigate the history of man's development, the most important finds are, of course, hominid fossils. ~ Richard Leakey,
864:Well family is obviously the most important. There was a time when I thought football was the most important. ~ Brett Favre,
865:When the most important decisions are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control. ~ Laura Poitras,
866:Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism. ~ David Suzuki,
867:From your point of view as a reader, therefore, the most important words are those that give you trouble. ~ Mortimer J Adler,
868:I don't create blurs. Blurring is not the most important thing; nor is it an identity tag for my pictures. ~ Gerhard Richter,
869:If the most important thing for your project is to put on a circus, then you have less chance of winning things. ~ Luis Figo,
870:I had no doubt that music was the most important thing in my life, and I was getting an education in that. ~ Michael Nesmith,
871:I have found over the years that the most important way of getting people to relax is self-deprecating humor. ~ Robert Reich,
872:In fact, I think that's my favorite word and the most important word when it comes to relationships: equality. ~ Alicia Keys,
873:Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale. ~ Zig Ziglar,
874:...Mrs. Percy understood that staying beautiful all day long is the most important aspect of being married... ~ Tevin Hansen,
875:Starting each day with a positive mindset is the most important step of your journey to discovering opportunity. ~ Jay Samit,
876:The best way to create spectacular results in the most important areas of your life is through daily practice ~ Robin Sharma,
877:The exquisite art of idleness is one of the most important things that any university can teach. —OSCAR WILDE ~ Jerramy Fine,
878:The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character. ~ Antonio Tabucchi,
879:The most important lesson I learned ... was that the winner of a gunplay usually was the one who took his time. ~ Wyatt Earp,
880:The most important sign in Matthew has to be the restoration of the Jews to the land in the rebirth of Israel. ~ Hal Lindsey,
881:The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. ~ Theodore Roosevelt,
882:the most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. ~ Theodore Roosevelt,
883:The most important thing is to live a fabulous life. As long as it's fabulous I don't care how long it is. ~ Freddie Mercury,
884:This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: 'At the time, no one knew what was coming. ~ Haruki Murakami,
885:This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: “At the time, no one knew what was coming. ~ Haruki Murakami,
886:Accomplishments do not have to be large to be meaningful. I think little victories are the most important ones in ~ Jason Gay,
887:And he realizes some of the most important days he ever had were just ordinary ones spent with the right people. ~ Vi Keeland,
888:coffee’s the most important thing they sell because most of us need it to keep us going, like gas in the car. ~ Emma Donoghue,
889:Food is the most important influence on your health. It is even more important than your thoughts and emotions. ~ David Wolfe,
890:In a political struggle of class against class, organization of trade unions is the most important weapon. ~ Friedrich Engels,
891:In the end, I believe that the most important influence on my aesthetic has been the photographs I have taken. ~ Roger Ballen,
892:I think the most important thing for us to make judgments about is what can we really do? What can we achieve? ~ Rahm Emanuel,
893:I think the most important thing to realize about play is that it's this thing that's in stuff, it's not in you. ~ Ian Bogost,
894:Records must not be the focus and that's the most important thing. It mustn't come at the cost of the team. ~ Garfield Sobers,
895:Sports betting is all about money management, so the most money won on one event is not the most important thing ~ Bruce Dern,
896:The ability to find meaning in the most difficult times, I think, is one of the most important skills of life. ~ Tony Robbins,
897:The best introduction to the psychological world of one of the most important and gifted writers of our time. ~ Italo Calvino,
898:The mind is the most important thing of the big picture and no one has a stronger mindset than amateur wrestlers. ~ Joe Rogan,
899:The most important influence on a child is the character of its parents, rather than this or that single event. ~ Erich Fromm,
900:The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. ~ Stephen Covey,
901:The most important thing for me to succeed in is day by day becoming a better and more prepared person. ~ Luis Gerardo Mendez,
902:The most important things in life cannot be bought or purchased...they are learned, felt, earned, or achieved. ~ Mario Rivers,
903:The most important thing that a change in physical perspective can do is to prompt a change in mental perspective ~ Anonymous,
904:The most important thing today is that Mark Webber is safe and OK. After a very nasty accident, he's fine. ~ Christian Horner,
905:the most important thing you can ever know, is that whatever your purpose is, that’s not your only choice.” “Huh? ~ Dan Wells,
906:The most important thing you should protect at all times is your standards. Never let them slip.” - Peter Voogd ~ Peter Voogd,
907:The point was simply this: the most important thing we could never forget was that we could never forget. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen,
908:tonight. Hong Kong is considered one of the most important financial centers in the world. Here money is god. The ~ Anonymous,
909:Warren Buffett once put it: “The most important thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. ~ David Bach,
910:We all need to be reminded again and again of what God has declared are the most important things in life. ~ Paul David Tripp,
911:When you read a novel, your own imagery is the most important. It's what makes reading such a wonderful thing. ~ Daniel Craig,
912:A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. ~ Mahatma Gandhi,
913:And one of the most important values of Barack Obama is that he will always level with the American people. ~ Charlie Gonzalez,
914:Family and friends and faith are the most important things in your life and you should be building friendships. ~ Barbara Bush,
915:For me, fashion is a job. I love it. It's my passion. But the most important thing for me in general is life. ~ Riccardo Tisci,
916:I always thought problem solving was greatly overrated - and that the most important thing was problem creation. ~ Chuck Close,
917:I've never had any close male friends. The most important relationships in my life have always been with women. ~ Willem Dafoe,
918:One of the most important things one can do in life is to brutally question every single thing you are taught. ~ Bryant McGill,
919:The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat. ~ Robert A Heinlein,
920:The most important thing for me as an actor playing a character is to make you laugh. That's my No. 1 goal. ~ Eric Stonestreet,
921:The most important thing in business is honesty, integrity, hard work familynever forgetting where we came from. ~ Frank Lucas,
922:The truth is the most important part of being impeccable with your word...Only the truth will set us free. ~ Miguel Angel Ruiz,
923:This is a good life lesson: getting the right people into your system is the most important thing you can do. ~ Charlie Munger,
924:When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. ~ Oscar Wilde,
925:Your attitude towards problems, difficulties, and adversities is the most important factor in overcoming them. ~ Napoleon Hill,
926:At the end of the day, we each have a different definition for beauty, but being yourself is the most important. ~ Maria Borges,
927:Being a father is the most important thing, if you ask me. It changed me as a person and gave me an all new life. ~ Mahesh Babu,
928:Concord, solidarity, and mutual help are the most important means of enabling animal species to survive. ~ Christian Lous Lange,
929:I don't eat breakfast. I know it's the most important meal of the day but my body doesn't respond to it well. ~ Mark Indelicato,
930:I think that's one of the most important gifts we have in television - the ability to heal through laughter. ~ Soleil Moon Frye,
931:I whisper your name, Ty. I whisper the most important thing:
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Livvy ~ Cassandra Clare,
932:Listening to the inner voice - trusting the inner voice - is one of the most important lessons of leadership. ~ Warren G Bennis,
933:New York City is the most important location in the world... it is the center for fashion, culture and finance. ~ Jared Kushner,
934:No matter what the situation you're in, if you're raised in a loving environment, that's the most important thing. ~ Clay Aiken,
935:Somehow…somewhere…she became the most important thing in the world to me. And I’m not certain how I feel about that. ~ K M Shea,
936:The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. ~ Stephen R Covey,
937:The most important questions of life are indeed, for the most part, really only problems of probability. ~ Pierre Simon Laplace,
938:The most important single aspect of software development is to be clear about what you are trying to build. ~ Bjarne Stroustrup,
939:The most important thing to say is that Sinn Fein isn't going back to anything. We are a party on the move. ~ Martin McGuinness,
940:Unfortunately, we seem incapable of learning the most important lesson in toxicology: The dose makes the poison. ~ Paul A Offit,
941:We talked about nothing in particular, but it felt like we were talking about the most important things. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer,
942:Whatever it is that you do, if you have that passion and desire for it, that's the most important thing. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin,
943:Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I definitely have a hearty breakfast before I do anything. ~ Mayer Hawthorne,
944:For a person who lives in time, differences are the most important thing because they represent your existence. ~ Frederick Lenz,
945:Leonardo believed that sight was the most significant sense of all and that one’s eyes were the most important. ~ Hourly History,
946:Life is really the only place you can learn the most important lessons about how to get dressed and to be happy. ~ Caitlin Moran,
947:Magicians will always tell you the trick is the most important thing, but Im more interested in telling a story. ~ Marco Tempest,
948:Often in life, the most important question we can ask ourselves is: do we really have the problem we think we have? ~ Sheri Fink,
949:One of the most important things one can do in life is to brutally question every single thing you are taught. ~ Bryant H McGill,
950:Sometimes things go really well, and sometimes they don't, and it's not ultimately the most important thing. ~ Maggie Gyllenhaal,
951:So we might say that the most important thing one can acquire in college is a well-functioning bullshit meter. ~ Andrew Delbanco,
952:That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. ~ Aldous Huxley,
953:The most important function of a bibliographic entry is to help the reader obtain a copy of the cited work. ~ Daniel J Bernstein,
954:Tone is often the most important part of a conversation - and listening is so much more important than what you say. ~ Hoda Kotb,
955:We have taken plants from the capitalist system where the most important thing was to produce, especially in Cuba. ~ Che Guevara,
956:Your happiness is the most important thing in this life. If you are not happy, you are of no use to anyone else. ~ Greg Behrendt,
957:Becoming vegan is the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species. ~ Chris Hedges,
958:Consider the Divine Life as the most important thing to obtain.
   ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [7],
959:I hope everyone can examine what is the most important relationship in life - the relationship between parent and child. ~ Jet Li,
960:It's very challenging. The most important thing you need as a sportsman is to be clear on what you're actually doing. ~ Brett Lee,
961:Learned some things in my life, Duchess, one of the most important, you find a good woman, you take care of her. ~ Kristen Ashley,
962:Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing. ~ John D Rockefeller,
963:The attitude of unconditional self-acceptance is probably the most important variable in their long-term recovery. ~ Albert Ellis,
964:The CEO is, by far, the most important decision for a company... The company is going to rise and fall with the CEO. ~ Carl Icahn,
965:The most important dance you’ll have in your life is one that does not require music. Alex Winslow, Broken Hearts Blvd ~ L J Shen,
966:The most important resources you will ever have are your mind and your mind-set. You must protect them at all costs. ~ Randy Gage,
967:The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. ~ Steven Pressfield,
968:The most important thing about translucent people is that their life has been deeply transformed by an awakening. ~ Arjuna Ardagh,
969:The most important thing in any endeavour is to get involved in the fight, and in that way learn what to do next. ~ Robert Harris,
970:The most important thing is to keep creating and following my inklings as they come into being and acting on them. ~ Reggie Watts,
971:To me the most important thing is the sense of going on. You know how beautiful things are when you're traveling. ~ Edward Hopper,
972:We're born, we live, we die. The most important thing out of those three is to live your life the way you want to. ~ Shannon Leto,
973:We talked about nothing in particular, but it felt like we were talking about the most important things... ~ Jonathan Safran Foer,
974:discipleship, or the following of Christ, was not simply the most important thing in life—it was the only thing. ~ Brennan Manning,
975:For me the most important thing is to continue to work with the best people that I can find, and that will have me. ~ David Caruso,
976:In my experience as CEO, I found that the most important decisions tested my courage far more than my intelligence. ~ Ben Horowitz,
977:I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are. ~ Diane von Furstenberg,
978:The most important benefit of patience consists in the way it acts as a powerful antidote to the affliction of anger. ~ Dalai Lama,
979:The most important fact about the war to most people was that if it ended suddenly, Earth’s economy would collapse. ~ Joe Haldeman,
980:The most important thing is believing your beautiful. The benefit of improving one's looks lies largely therein. ~ Lynn Weingarten,
981:The older I become, the more I realize that drawing is the most important of all the problems of picture-making. ~ Joaquin Sorolla,
982:This may shock you, but the most important person in your life is you. You are meant to be 'full of yourself. ~ Alexandra Stoddard,
983:Well, you know what they say in Hollywood - the most important thing is being sincere, even if you have to fake it. ~ Cesar Romero,
984:Your guardian angel loves you. You are precious to it. You are the most important person in the world to this angel. ~ Lorna Byrne,
985:I'm not at all sure that the concept of the readymade isn't the most important single idea to come out of my work. ~ Marcel Duchamp,
986:I think the most important thing for any driver is to know that he's getting equality of equipment and priority. ~ Christian Horner,
987:It's terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component. ~ Tom Waits,
988:I was raised to believe in hard work, in faith and family. ... The most important job I'll ever have is spelled D-A-D. ~ Mike Pence,
989:Make sure that the person you’re in the room with is the most important person in the world when you’re together. ~ Craig Groeschel,
990:Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends. ~ Epicurus,
991:ou know chicks before dicks. Never choose a guy over a friend. It's one of the most important rules of feminism. ~ Rosalind Wiseman,
992:Perfect form is the most important thing to have a perfect body, it's impossible to make a painting with a big brush ~ Serge Nubret,
993:Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation-and for me the most important part is listening to God's replies. ~ Frank C Laubach,
994:Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation - and for me the most important part is listening to God's replies. ~ Frank Laubach,
995:Teachers are the most important individuals in our society - nothing is as powerful as the human touch in education. ~ George Lucas,
996:The main character and the most important character are not always the same person - you have to know the difference. ~ John Irving,
997:THE most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me ~ Helen Keller,
998:The most important philosophy I think is that even if it isn't true you must absolutely assume there is no afterlife. ~ Stephen Fry,
999:The most important thing is what you already do. It's being authentic. It's being curious, trying to discover gifts. ~ Tony Robbins,
1000:The most important thing is, when I do give the music, I'm satisfied with it, that it speaks for what I want to do. ~ Stevie Wonder,
1001:The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school. ~ Anonymous,
1002:There are a lot of limitations so you have to ultimately focus on what you think the most important storyline is. ~ Joseph Kosinski,
1003:Victory is the most important aspect in Iraq, because victory in Iraq will help us have victory in the War on Terror. ~ Andrew Card,
1004:Where you are going to spend your time and your energy is one of the most important decisions you get to make in life. ~ Jeff Bezos,
1005:You are the most important person in the world. Every single of you. Don’t let anybody tell you differently, okay?, ~ Alex Gaskarth,
1006:Integration is the most important asset Europe has, and the key component to European integration is the euro. ~ Anibal Cavaco Silva,
1007:I worked with him for years. I still think Kanye [West] is one of the most important people in music in the last ten years. ~ A Trak,
1008:Living without virtues is to live divorced from society, seperated from the most important thing in life, community. ~ Veronica Roth,
1009:Preparing a child for the world of tomorrow is one of the most important roles a parent plays in a child’s life. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki,
1010:Statehood for the District of Columbia is the most important civil rights and social justice issue in America today. ~ Jesse Jackson,
1011:The love of power comes from a lack of the most important power, that of living a life of eternity with every creature. ~ A D Gordon,
1012:The mind is the most important part of achieving any fitness goal. Mental change always comes before physical change. ~ Matt McGorry,
1013:The most important point is, in a time of crisis, there is no way out but for the government to be bold and aggressive. ~ Mark Zandi,
1014:The most important thing to me is, how, in the process of learning how to use my body, can I come to understand myself ? ~ Bruce Lee,
1015:The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school. ~ Haruki Murakami,
1016:You, far more than the market or the economy, are the most important factor in your long-term investment success. ~ Burton G Malkiel,
1017:All values in this world are more or less questionable, but the most important thing in life is human kindness. ~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko,
1018:And the invention of transformations of certain figures has become the most important in musical composition. ~ Karlheinz Stockhausen,
1019:A society should never become like a pond with stagnant water, without movement. That's the most important thing. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev,
1020:Being tiny has been difficult for me in a business that regarded physicality as the most important part of your life. ~ Estelle Getty,
1021:Believing isnot enough, Sang Ly. If you want to resurrect hope, doing is the most important. Can you do these things? ~ Camron Wright,
1022:Do you want to know why men name their penis? So the most important decisions in their life aren't made by a stranger. ~ Linda Howard,
1023:Family has always been the most important thing in my life. The only real goal that I ever had was to be a good mother. ~ Goldie Hawn,
1024:Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important non-evil generators of human evil, tragedy and suffering. ~ Abraham Maslow,
1025:I believe that all people living together in unity is one of the most important messages we can teach our children. ~ Michael Jackson,
1026:It was THE most important thing I had EVER attempted in my entire fourteen years of life here on planet Earth. ~ Rachel Ren e Russell,
1027:My belief has always been that national defense is the most important thing we do, but we shouldn't borrow to pay for it. ~ Rand Paul,
1028:Politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion. ~ Pope Francis,
1029:The conversation between your fingers and someone else’s skin. This is the most important discussion you can ever have. ~ Iain Thomas,
1030:The most important issues are the recovery and removal of oil seeds, oil cake, and only then the removal of grain. ~ Frederick Taylor,
1031:The most important part of life is work, it's the flow, it's getting stuff done, feeling like you're doing something. ~ Penn Jillette,
1032:The most important thing is to be strong. With strength, one can conquer others, and to conquer others gives one virtue. ~ Mao Zedong,
1033:The most important things are actually the easiest to obtain: great friends, good food, and a decent bottle of wine. ~ Blake Mycoskie,
1034:The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them. ~ Stephen King,
1035:The most important thing that each of us can do is to try even harder to see the world through our neighbor's eyes. ~ Hillary Clinton,
1036:There was at time in my life where all I wanted was a relationship, and I thought that was the most important thing. ~ Kim Kardashian,
1037:Treasures:
The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it. ~ Brian Andreas,
1038:Ah. So he's forgotten the most important rule of warfare.

Which is...

That nothing ever goes to plan. ~ Scott Westerfeld,
1039:Being active and good health is the most important beauty regime because that will affect you for the rest of your life. ~ Kate Hudson,
1040:Being a father is the greatest achievement and the most important thing about me. I have two great kids, no question. ~ Ryan Phillippe,
1041:Eventually, I'll go back to acting, but for right now, my children are the most important thing in the world to me. ~ Soleil Moon Frye,
1042:Home has always been one of the most important things. If I don't feel at home in my space, then I feel really unmoored. ~ Nate Berkus,
1043:I couldn’t just bury the ugly parts of my past without also burying what might be the most important parts of myself. ~ Laurel Saville,
1044:I'm going to tell you the most important secret of human life. The most critical need of the human soul is to be kind. ~ David O McKay,
1045:I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you're doing. ~ Phil Jackson,
1046:I think the most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus. ~ Donald Miller,
1047:I think the most important thing to do is to recognize the fundamentally different circumstances of pursuing growth. ~ Scott D Anthony,
1048:It’s the way we don’t tell the most important people in our lives the most important things. It was how men tended to be. ~ Robyn Carr,
1049:Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the most important lesson we can learn is how to love. How to love better. ~ Paulo Coelho,
1050:Making sure you drink enough pure water is one of the most important and powerful steps you can take for good health. ~ Joseph Mercola,
1051:Simplicity and order are, if not the principal, then certainly the most important guidelines for human beings in general. ~ M C Escher,
1052:The internet has become a political space. I think that is one of the most important developments in the past decade. ~ Julian Assange,
1053:The most important qualification is that the person I pick be ready to become president if something were to happen. ~ Hillary Clinton,
1054:This is the most important aviation development since Lindbergh's flight. In one fell swoop, we have shrunken the earth. ~ Juan Trippe,
1055:We have everything we need, in fact, except the most important thing of all — time to think and the habit of thought. ~ Norman Cousins,
1056:You find the most important things in life suddenly. And it's almost funny how ordinary those extraordinary moments feel. ~ Sonali Dev,
1057:You’re the most important part of my life, Lily. I want to be what brings you happiness. Not what causes you to hurt. ~ Colleen Hoover,
1058:And the most important thing he told me was that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat their dogs. ~ Mary Kay Andrews,
1059:By far the most important form of attention we can give our loved ones is listening... True listening is love in action. ~ M Scott Peck,
1060:Creating and integrating an empowering personal mission statement is one of the most important investments we can make. ~ Stephen Covey,
1061:I think the most important thing people can do is to learn about their watershed. And it's something no one knows. ~ Alexandra Cousteau,
1062:The family is the most important wealth of a nation. May we endeavor to defend and strengthen the foundation of society. ~ Pope Francis,
1063:The most important and necessary human deed, for both doer and recipient, are those of which he does not see the results. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
1064:The most important thing in this life, Master Oklahoma used to say at the end of each session, is to have a destiny. ~ Valeria Luiselli,
1065:The most important thing is to change what children see from the beginning. To not create a problem we have to fix later. ~ Geena Davis,
1066:The most important things in a painting are Form and Value. Color comes last - like a friend you welcome. ~ Jean Baptiste Camille Corot,
1067:To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing. ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
1068:When you love someone and they love you, you deserve to be the most important thing to them, as important as breathing. ~ Courtney Cole,
1069:Whether you're a veteran like me or a high school athlete, the most important thing you can do is keep your body healthy. ~ Jason Terry,
1070:Childhood constitutes the most important element in an adult's life, for it is in his early years that a man is made. ~ Maria Montessori,
1071:I always say to myself, what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld,
1072:If you change your relationship with time, you will change your life. The most important time of your life is right now. ~ Deepak Chopra,
1073:I have had what might be called a post graduate course in the most important subject for all Canadians - Canada itself. ~ Vincent Massey,
1074:Mia, what is the most important thing for a soccer player to have?” With no hesitation, she answered, “Mental toughness. ~ Carol S Dweck,
1075:The most important imperative to be questioned is the one that tells you to go the the art supply store to be a painter. ~ Mark Bradford,
1076:The most important lesson of all: No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can't go all the way around. ~ John Green,
1077:the most important point: that the universe is governed by a set of rational laws that we can discover and understand. ~ Stephen Hawking,
1078:The most important thing in your life is to be happy, to be patient and to learn to love life and do everything you can. ~ Gilles Marini,
1079:The most important thing is to have a sense of responsibility, commitment, and concern for each of our fellow human beings. ~ Dalai Lama,
1080:To have absolute success in any area, the most important prerequisite must be that you have a passion for doing it. ~ Janet Bray Attwood,
1081:Ultimately, it is not the growing technique, which is the most important factor, but rather the state of mind of the farmer. ~ Anonymous,
1082:Understanding future warfare is the most important responsibility of those who must defend a nation from future enemies! ~ Perry M Smith,
1083:We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth." —William Anders ~ Erec Stebbins,
1084:Because the most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. ~ Steven Pressfield,
1085:I'm the most important person in the lives of almost everyone I know and a good number of the people I've never even met. ~ David Sedaris,
1086:In carrying out e-commerce, the most important thing is to keep doing what you are doing right now with passion, to keep it up. ~ Jack Ma,
1087:I think the most important thing is to start with something that fits perfectly. Don't worry about having it in five colors. ~ Jack White,
1088:I've always said that the most important thing is job creation. Jobs will earn people money and build self-confidence. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi,
1089:Laughing is such a pure and natural thing I try to laugh every day. Think that's one of the most important things in life. ~ Bill Kaulitz,
1090:No one loses anyone because no one owns anyone. That is true experience of freedom; having the most important thing in it. ~ Paulo Coelho,
1091:Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us. Prayer changes us profoundly. ~ R C Sproul,
1092:she knew, the most important battles for dignity, pride, and progress were fought with the simplest of actions. It ~ Margot Lee Shetterly,
1093:the Bible is the second most important revelation of God to humanity. The most important revelation of God is Jesus himself. ~ Tony Jones,
1094:The computer and the Internet are among the most important inventions of our era, but few people know who created them. ~ Walter Isaacson,
1095:The idea that global warming is the most important problem facing the world is total nonsense and is doing a lot of harm. ~ Freeman Dyson,
1096:The key point to keep in mind, however, is that symmetry is one of the most important tools in deciphering nature's design. ~ Mario Livio,
1097:The most important method of education always has consisted of that in which the pupil was urged to actual performance. ~ Albert Einstein,
1098:The most important part of discernment is pinpointing the forces to be reckoned with, both the constructive and destructive. ~ Criss Jami,
1099:The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit. ~ Milton Friedman,
1100:The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
Love is the only rational act. ~ Mitch Albom,
1101:The most important thing to me is my work, and reaching people through my work. It's so important to me. It's my passion. ~ Adelaide Kane,
1102:The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school. ~ Haruki Murakami,
1103:The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school. ~ Haruki Murakami,
1104:The national Government sees in both Christian denominations the most important factor for the maintenance of our society. ~ Adolf Hitler,
1105:Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success. ~ T Harv Eker,
1106:All the craft skills that I have, I feel like I developed and honed in drama school. It's the most important thing for me. ~ Andre Holland,
1107:Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. ~ Maya Angelou,
1108:For the most important decisions in your life, trust your intuition, and then work with everything you have, to prove it right. ~ Tim Cook,
1109:From triumph to downfall is but a step. I have seen a trifle decide the most important issues in the gravest affairs. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte,
1110:I am now convinced that Google searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche. This ~ Seth Stephens Davidowitz,
1111:I believe AIDS is the most important issue we face, because how we treat the poor is a reflection of who we are as a people. ~ Alicia Keys,
1112:I don't enjoy hearing the sound of my voice. The most important things for me are impossible to articulate extemporaneously. ~ Annie Baker,
1113:I like any title with the letters U.S. in front of it. To me, the U.S. Open is the most important tournament in the world. ~ Jimmy Connors,
1114:I think it is the most important subject facing this country, but I cannot get any of my ministers to take any notice. ~ Winston Churchill,
1115:Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage. ~ Benjamin Disraeli,
1116:One of the most important skills for political success is the ability to make confident assertions of absurdities or lies. ~ Thomas Sowell,
1117:Our national motto is 'In God we Trust,' reminding us that faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all. ~ Marco Rubio,
1118:The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth. ~ Serj Tankian,
1119:The most important thing for you to know is that it is impossible to feel bad and at the same time be having good thoughts. ~ Rhonda Byrne,
1120:The most important thing I have done is to combine something esoteric with a practical issue that affects many people. ~ Benoit Mandelbrot,
1121:The most important thing in life is to love what you’re dong, because that’s the only way you’ll ever be really good at it. ~ Donald Trump,
1122:The most important thing in my life is to live my life and enjoy it--to do what I think is right and what I think is good. ~ Jaye Davidson,
1123:the most important thing one can do for children is not accept the limitations they are so willing to impose on themselves. ~ Ruth Simmons,
1124:The most important thing to remember is this: to be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become. ~ W E B Du Bois,
1125:the most important thing was to show strength of will, not when matters were going well, but when they were going badly. ~ L E Modesitt Jr,
1126:Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into donors. And then do the most important job: Turn your donors into fundraisers. ~ Seth Godin,
1127:You've got to remember what your priorities are. When you're playing, what u do on the field is the most important thing. ~ Peyton Manning,
1128:And then we turn 18 and even though we never had an original thought we have to make the most important decission of our lives. ~ Jay Asher,
1129:Be yourself. It's the most important part of anything that you do. It's not fashion. It can be whatever you want to do. ~ Russell Westbrook,
1130:In my opinion, character is the most important determinant of a person's success, achievement and ability to handle adversity. ~ Tom Landry,
1131:I think the most important thing is in life, it's all about balance. It's balance between foods you like and nutrition. ~ Travis Lane Stork,
1132:"I think the most important thing is that in the last seven days we've just had the greatest adventure of our lifetimes." ~ Richard Branson,
1133:knowing that what you are doing is the most important thing for you to be doing at that moment is surprisingly powerful. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
1134:Make no mistake about it: Next to parents and families, our teachers are the most important influence in our childrens lives. ~ Kenny Guinn,
1135:Money is the most important thing in the world, you know. Money can buy you happiness, and I don't care what anyone else thinks. ~ Marie Lu,
1136:Remember what Bogie and my mother both used to say: 'Character is the most important thing. All that matters is character!' ~ Lauren Bacall,
1137:Since then I had learned the most important thing: the decisions you make can become your life. Your choices are you. ~ David Barclay Moore,
1138:The most important of these rules is the first one: the eternal law of reversion to the mean (RTM) in the financial markets. ~ John C Bogle,
1139:The most important part is to take on the challenge of protecting the ocean as if your life depends on it - because it does. ~ Sylvia Earle,
1140:The most important thing is not the work I can do for God. The most important thing is to make God the most important thing. ~ Phil Vischer,
1141:The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say — because they were too obvious. ~ Andr Gide,
1142:You know to me, being a good actor, the most important quality is you've got to love to play, and to just be open to anything. ~ Peter Berg,
1143:And here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world. ~ Hermann Hesse,
1144:As long as a man feels that he is the most important thing in the world he cannot really appreciate the world around him. ~ Carlos Castaneda,
1145:I grew up so thoroughly imbued with women's rights that it was the most important question of my life from a very early day. ~ Lucretia Mott,
1146:It's funny how you can grow away from your friends, when just a few years ago they were the most important people in your life. ~ Judy Blume,
1147:Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them. ~ Marcus Aurelius,
1148:Life is struggle.” I believe that within that quote lies the most important lesson in entrepreneurship: Embrace the struggle. ~ Ben Horowitz,
1149:My God is rock'n'roll. It's an obscure power that can change your life. The most important part of my religion is to play guitar. ~ Lou Reed,
1150:One of the most important steps you can take in building a visionary company is not an action, but a shift in perspective. ~ James C Collins,
1151:People are realizing and shouting and marching and demanding. They’re not forgetting. I think that’s the most important part. ~ Angie Thomas,
1152:Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned is to embrace the small pleasures and turn them into lasting memories. ~ Elizabeth Chadwick,
1153:the most important aspects of agility—the ability to make an intentional shift in order to be effective in changing contexts. ~ Pamela Meyer,
1154:The most important is that the writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s. ~ Stephen King,
1155:The most important lesson of New Labour is this: Every time we made progress we did it by challenging the conventional wisdom. ~ Ed Miliband,
1156:The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them. ~ Sarah Hepola,
1157:The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious. ~ Andre Gide,
1158:The most important thing you can do to improve your teaching is to work toward subject-matter expertise on the Bible as a whole. ~ Anonymous,
1159:The most important thing you ever did was learn how to survive. Do not let anyone make you feel like you shouldn't have. ~ Alexandra Bracken,
1160:The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. ~ Nikola Tesla,
1161:There is nothing wrong with being the most important person under the sun if everybody else is just as important as you are. ~ L Ron Hubbard,
1162:This is the moment—this is the most important moment right now. Which is: We are about contribution. That’s what our job is. ~ Garr Reynolds,
1163:We Are Lovable
Even if the most important person in your world rejects you, you are still real, and you are still okay. ~ Melody Beattie,
1164:What I say is, national defense is the most important thing we do in Washington, but there's still waste in the military budget. ~ Rand Paul,
1165:You serve many purposes as a wife, but the most important is incubating and extruding his biological legacy from your body. ~ Therese Oneill,
1166:Creating a warm, caring, supportive, encouraging environment is probably the most important thing you can do for your family. ~ Stephen Covey,
1167:Friendship does not depend on conversation. Sometimes the most important communication is not mouth to ear, but heart to heart. ~ Dean Koontz,
1168:Gurov, discovers that the most important features of life that you want to talk about cannot be spoken of in polite society. ~ Charles Baxter,
1169:I think the most important thing that I've learned is that you live and you learn. Try not to make the same mistakes twice. ~ Adrienne Bailon,
1170:I wish she’d said what is the most important thing in her life. But like so many conversations between us, it’s left unfinished. ~ A G Riddle,
1171:Love is the most important thing a person can knowIf you should win love once, you'll know it is harder than death to let go. ~ Miyuki Miyabe,
1172:My point has always been that, ever since the Industrial Revolution, science fiction has been the most important genre there is. ~ Iain Banks,
1173:One of the most important roles for management is ensuring architectural integrity and sustainability when developing code. One ~ Gary Gruver,
1174:Reading is important. Books are important. Librarians are important... Children's fiction is the most important fiction of all. ~ Neil Gaiman,
1175:Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. ~ Bill Gates,
1176:The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting. ~ Dave Barry,
1177:the most important law of money: “Give, and you shall receive.” Instead, he believed in: “Receive, and then you give.” In ~ Robert T Kiyosaki,
1178:The most important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. —CHARLES DUBOIS ~ David Simpson,
1179:The most important thing that we can do for the healing of our world is to hear inside ourselves, the sounds of the earth crying. ~ Nhat Hanh,
1180:The most important thing to me is to give something back to my parents, because they've done so much for me throughout my life. ~ Leona Lewis,
1181:The most important thing, when playing characters with chemistry, is being able to work off the other actor and be supported. ~ Tricia Helfer,
1182:The MVP award was very satisfying in terms of personal accomplishments, but the championship was the most important thing of all. ~ Bob Cousy,
1183:There can only be one most important thing. Many things may be important, but only one can be the most important.” —Ross Garber ~ Gary Keller,
1184:When you fall in love you recognise you're not the most important person in the world, and your focus becomes another person. ~ Russell Brand,
1185:When you get right down to it, one of the most important tasks of a leader is to eliminate his people's excuse for failure. ~ Robert Townsend,
1186:Evolution is the most important battle that Christians have to fight today, a battle we must win by any means, fair or foul! ~ Hank Hanegraaff,
1187:I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor ~ Max von Sydow,
1188:I want to interview the most important people in the world and have everyone in America the next day going, 'Did you see that?' ~ Piers Morgan,
1189:Just remember that the most important thing is to be truthful to yourself. If you hang on to that, you won’t go far wrong. ~ Rosamunde Pilcher,
1190:Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.
   ~ Zig Ziglar,
1191:Of all the knowledge that we can ever obtain, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves, are the most important. ~ Jonathan Edwards,
1192:One of the most important things I've learned in life is that complicated isn't always bad. Sometimes complicated is just complex. ~ S L Scott,
1193:Poetry is not the most important thing in life... I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets. ~ Dylan Thomas,
1194:The junior high schools and high schools of America have forgotten to teach one of the most important courses of all. Investing. ~ Peter Lynch,
1195:The most important invention that will come out of the corporate research lab in the future will be the corporation itself. ~ John Seely Brown,
1196:The most important single thing is to focus obsessively on the customer. Our goal is to be earth's most customer-centric company. ~ Jeff Bezos,
1197:The most important things that one's working on are not necessarily the most important things that one thinks one's working on. ~ Anish Kapoor,
1198:The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.   No ~ Haruki Murakami,
1199:When someone becomes a millionaire, the least important thing is what they have. The most important thing is what they have become. ~ Jim Rohn,
1200:Although I am basically self taught, I consider Debussy my teacher - the most important elements are colour, light and shadow. ~ Toru Takemitsu,
1201:But, even when young, I never paid enough attention to looking good in a bikini so age is perhaps not the most important factor. ~ Joanna Walsh,
1202:For me, the most important thing is that I feel comfortable with the actor that I'm working with and I'm able to talk to them. ~ Julianne Moore,
1203:Hitting is the most important part of the game. It is where the big money is, where much of the status is, and the fan interest. ~ Ted Williams,
1204:I believe in marriage. I believe marriage is a really important institution; it's one of the most important institutions we have. ~ Theresa May,
1205:I think the most important thing in the world is being brave. I'd rathe be brave than beautiful. Hell, I'd settle for acting brave. ~ Amy Bloom,
1206:I won't change anything because I think the most important thing is being yourself and that's what I'm going to continue to do. ~ Avril Lavigne,
1207:Life is filled with tests, one after another, and if you don't recognize them, you are certain to fail the most important ones. ~ Brian Herbert,
1208:Mary Anning [is] probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology. ~ Stephen Jay Gould,
1209:That’s the most important thing when it comes to love. We have to feel like we’re the most important person to the ones we love. ~ Oriana Small,
1210:The books could be completely worthless, and things we don't even read now could be considered the most important books. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer,
1211:The education of the doctor which goes on after he has his degree is, after all, the most important part of his education. ~ John Shaw Billings,
1212:The most important role of managers is to create environment in which people are passionately dedicated to winning in marketplace. ~ Andy Grove,
1213:The most important secret of salesmanship is to find out what the other fellow wants, then help him find the best way to get it ~ Frank Bettger,
1214:There is only one time that is important -- NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time hat we have any power. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
1215:The sun is the most important thing in everybody's life, whether you're a plant, an animal or a fish, and we take it for granted. ~ Danny Boyle,
1216:You must remember, my dear lady, the most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it. ~ Libba Bray,
1217:Believing in yourself you gain confidence, which allows you to relax. Relaxation is one of the most important parts about acting. ~ Emile Hirsch,
1218:For each of them, the most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they most loved to do... ~ Richard Bach,
1219:I really think the most important thing I do is to protect the dignity and the integrity of the Office of the Surgeon General. ~ Richard Carmona,
1220:I think one of the most important skills of a local organizer of a local economy is an ability to put on a terrific street party. ~ David Korten,
1221:Never do anything complicated when something simple will serve as well. It's one of the most important secrets of living. ~ Erich Maria Remarque,
1222:Of all the United States’ partners in the global war on terrorism, Pakistan is the most vexing and arguably the most important. ~ Husain Haqqani,
1223:One of the most important branches of the Egyptian economy is tourism. No bikinis, no tourism. So they have to decide what to do. ~ Shimon Peres,
1224:One of the most important pieces of equipment, for the photographer who really wants to improve, is a great big wastepaper basket. ~ Ansel Adams,
1225:Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks, the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well. ~ Henry David Thoreau,
1226:Story is important but the most important is the theme and how you're going to convey theme cinematically. I'm a believer also. ~ Alfonso Cuaron,
1227:The eradication of anti-personnel mines around the world is one of the most important tasks facing the international community. ~ Norman Jewison,
1228:The most important healing - realizing who you are. The healing on the outer level is fine, but it's not the essence of healing. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
1229:the most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. You’ve got to be your own best friend first.” —PHIL MCGRAW ~ John C Maxwell,
1230:The most important role of a leader is to set a clear direction, be transparent about how to get there and to stay the course. ~ Irene Rosenfeld,
1231:These little daily choices that we're so used to thinking are irrelevant are the most important thing we do all day long. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer,
1232:Who gets everything they want, Danny, exactly how they want it? You have to decide the most important thing and go from there. ~ Brooke McKinley,
1233:You’re the most important person in the world to
me.” I quickly added in a hushed voice, “Don’t tell Mom. She’ll be jealous. ~ Kim Harrington,
1234:Humor is the most important thing in life. It trumps everything else and it's the only thing that helps me deal with everything else. ~ Paul Rudd,
1235:Love is the most important thing a person can know... If you should win love once, you'll know it is harder than death to let go. ~ Miyuki Miyabe,
1236:Mortals are always in a hurry to do things, but they never understand that the most important thing they can do in life is change. ~ Dannika Dark,
1237:My career has always been one of the most important things, but after having a baby you find that it drops down on the totem pole. ~ Marion Jones,
1238:Of all the things that wisdom provides for the happiness of the whole man, by far the most important is the acquisition of friendship. ~ Epicurus,
1239:One of the most important things about leadership is that you have to have the kind of humility that will allow you to be coached. ~ Jim Yong Kim,
1240:Sometimes, she knew, the most important battles for dignity, pride, and progress were fought with the simplest of actions. ~ Margot Lee Shetterly,
1241:The Copernican revolution brought about by Kant was, I think, the most important single turning point in the history of philosophy. ~ Bryan Magee,
1242:The hardest thing to do in talking to a woman was taking the first step, but the most important thing to do was not to think. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen,
1243:The most important choices you make are the choices about how you see yourself, the Universe, and your relationship to the Universe. ~ Gary Zukav,
1244:While the most important thing for a woman to have is money, the second most important is options. A lady must have her options. ~ Michelle Gable,
1245:As far as career goes, make sure you're in it for the right reasons - and make sure that the work itself is the most important thing. ~ Clive Owen,
1246:Being Mistreated is the most important condition of mortality, for eternity itself depends on how we view those who mistreat us. ~ James L Ferrell,
1247:Belief in God is the most important thing in the world. When someone has faith they must be a decent person and know how to behave. ~ Wendy Holden,
1248:Derek wrote a book called Reasons and Persons, which Will considers one of the most important books written in the 20th century. ~ Timothy Ferriss,
1249:Focus on the most important law of money: “Give, and you shall receive.” Instead, he believed in: “Receive, and then you give. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki,
1250:For me photography was the means to the end, but they made it the most important thing. (On the discovery of X-ray photography.) ~ Wilhelm Rontgen,
1251:[In many circumstances,] the most important thing about a proposition is not that it be true, but that it be interesting. ~ Alfred North Whitehead,
1252:In the last analysis, productivity of labour is the most important, the principal thing for the victory of the new social system. ~ Vladimir Lenin,
1253:I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments. ~ Jim Morrison,
1254:Limitations force you to find the essence of what you want to say, which is one of the most important things to know for an artist. ~ Julie Taymor,
1255:No matter how convenient it is for us to reach out to people remotely, sometimes the most important task is to show up in person. ~ Blake Mycoskie,
1256:One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no 'them' out there. It’s just an awful lot of 'us.' ~ Douglas Adams,
1257:That's maybe the most important thing each generation does, is to break a lot of rules and make up their own way of doing things. ~ Jackson Browne,
1258:The most fundamental and the most important aspect of the spiritual process can in no way be stopped by anybody - except yourself. ~ Jaggi Vasudev,
1259:The most important talent for a shinobi is not the numberof jutsu. The important thing is... HAVING THE GUTS TO NEVER GIVE UP. ~ Masashi Kishimoto,
1260:The most important thing is to write in your own blood. I bare intimate feelings because people should know how other people feel. ~ Joni Mitchell,
1261:We are not jumping on the austerity bandwagon. A healthy economy is by far the most important thing for Social Democrats. ~ Helle Thorning Schmidt,
1262:Wherever I go meeting the public... spreading a message of human values, spreading a message of harmony, is the most important thing. ~ Dalai Lama,
1263:Whoever is first to dominate the most important segment of a market with viral potential will be the last mover in the whole market. ~ Peter Thiel,
1264:Why be fearful of saying no to someone or of leaving something undone when the most important thing of all was to enjoy life fully? ~ Paulo Coelho,
1265:Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is a supreme creative act. ~ Ram Dass,
1266:Asking a question is the simplest way of focusing thinking...asking the right question may be the most important part of thinking. ~ Edward de Bono,
1267:A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert,
1268:But how will I know who my Soulmate is? Brida felt that this was one of the most important questions she had ever asked in her life. ~ Paulo Coelho,
1269:God is the most important thing in our lives. I suppose that's true of everybody's lives, whether or not they want to believe it. ~ Nicholas Sparks,
1270:I do think laughter is the most important thing, and being able to see the funny side of nearly anything is a crucial, crucial thing. ~ Jeremy Vine,
1271:It's because we live in a beauty-obsessed society where the most important thing a woman can do is make herself attractive to men. ~ Liane Moriarty,
1272:It's not irrelevant, those moments of connection, those places where fiction saves your life. It's the most important thing there is. ~ Neil Gaiman,
1273:Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution . . ~ William Howard Taft,
1274:Of all kinds of knowledge that we can ever obtain, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves, are the most important. ~ Jonathan Edwards,
1275:Out of everything - out of the money and the gift bags - the most important thing to me is just my mother and father being happy. ~ Rockmond Dunbar,
1276:Perhaps the most important ideas of all are meta-ideas—ideas about how to support the production and transmission of other ideas. . . . ~ Anonymous,
1277:The best thing, and the most important thing the labor movement cannot do without, and must have and fight to keep, is solidarity. ~ Charles Brandt,
1278:The most important thing I have to say to you today is that hair matters. Pay attention to your hair, because everyone else will. ~ Hillary Clinton,
1279:The most important thing is that you have to have the visual effects working for you, instead of you working for the visual effects. ~ David Heyman,
1280:This is the most important principle of reading on the Internet: You must determine for yourself whether or not something is true. ~ Stephen Downes,
1281:Verbal Expressiveness
One of the most important attributes is simply being able to express one's needs clearly and appropriately. ~ Mary Pipher,
1282:We look back to the most important moment in our history, and that becomes the dividing line between what we were and what we are now. ~ John Green,
1283:What is important is not the quantity of your knowledge but its quality. You can know many things without knowing the most important. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
1284:But I think the most important thing is to find the love of your life and have fun in love. And enjoy and appreciate what comes to you. ~ Heidi Klum,
1285:I've got friends in the different teams I've played for, but family is the most important thing to me. That will always be the case. ~ David Beckham,
1286:I've learned that the part they neglect to tell you is often the most important part. People hide the truth because they're afraid ~ Nicholas Sparks,
1287:Jerry Jones and Chris Christie are probably the most important latent homosexual relationship since Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. ~ Kinky Friedman,
1288:My writing has developed drastically . The Return of the Prodigal Son is the most important thing I've done, and my most mature book. ~ Henri Nouwen,
1289:Sometimes, she knew, the most important battles for dignity, pride, and progress were fought with the simplest of actions. It ~ Margot Lee Shetterly,
1290:The coming week in The Hague may prove to be one of the most important in the three-and-a-half-billion year history of life on earth. ~ Tony Juniper,
1291:The most important acts, both for the one who accomplishes them and for his fellow creatures, are those that have remote consequences. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
1292:The most important decisions that businesspeople make are not what decisions, but who decisions. —JIM COLLINS, AUTHOR OF GOOD TO GREAT ~ Geoff Smart,
1293:The most important factor for the development of the individual is the structure and the values of the society into which he was born. ~ Erich Fromm,
1294:The most important thing is that you develop your own principles and ideally write them down, especially if you are working with others. ~ Ray Dalio,
1295:The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting. ~ Stephen King,
1296:The pursuit of social success, in the form of prestige or power or both, is the most important obstacle in a competitive society. ~ Bertrand Russell,
1297:Wealth is one of the most important sources of happiness. It becomes a source of pain only when we earn or spend it inappropriately. ~ Awdhesh Singh,
1298:... and of all the words I have hidden and saved and treasured, these are the ones I will never forget, the most important ones of all. ~ Ally Condie,
1299:As a kid, I was obsessed with the Who. They were the most important band to me. Songs like "I'm One" helped me get through high school. ~ Judd Apatow,
1300:Courting Peggy McGrath provided me with a very pleasant diversion and eventually with the most important relationship of my life. ~ David Rockefeller,
1301:Elites quite naturally define as the most important and admired qualities for a citizen those on which they themselves have concentrated. ~ John Saul,
1302:Finding the best person or the best organization to invest your money is one of the most important financial decisions you'll ever make. ~ Bill Gross,
1303:globally recognized sex expert Dr. Justine Shuey. “The most important thing you can accomplish is to become an askable parent,” she says. ~ Anonymous,
1304:I believe that UNICEF is the most important branch of the U.N.; they do exceptional work to help the neediest children around the world ~ Liam Neeson,
1305:If you are an intelligent human being then you are interested in climate change because it's the most important issue of our time. ~ Franny Armstrong,
1306:It is in vain that we would circumscribe the power of one half of our race, and that half by far the most important and influential. ~ Frances Wright,
1307:Living your life the way you want to live it is the most important thing so if you have to pay small prices along the way, it's not important. ~ Cher,
1308:Sheer human decency and civility are two of the most important contributions to our community life that women of courage can make. ~ Chieko N Okazaki,
1309:Talking with my friends and family every day helps keep me grounded and connected to home. They are the most important things to me. ~ Colbie Caillat,
1310:The most important environmental issue is one that is rarely mentioned, and that is the lack of a conservation ethic in our culture. ~ Gaylord Nelson,
1311:The most important thing had always been what other people thought - appearances before herself or her family. And righteous about it. ~ Daniel Keyes,
1312:The most important thing is God's blessing and if you believe in God and you believe in yourself, you have nothing to worry about. ~ Mohamed Al Fayed,
1313:The most important tool ultimately is the person and his or her makeup, and yet it seems to get the least amount of attention and work. ~ Henry Cloud,
1314:Trust is the most important aspect of being a journalist. If people don't trust or find you relatable - you will not have success. ~ Gretchen Carlson,
1315:We are used to cleaning the outside house, but the most important house to clean is yourself - your own house - which we never do. ~ Marina Abramovic,
1316:What else do you need in life, Mma? You have a fine husband—which is one of the most important things that anybody can have. ~ Alexander McCall Smith,
1317:As one philosopher noted, the human brain is an "anticipation machine," and "making future" is the most important thing it does. ~ Daniel Todd Gilbert,
1318:Don't be too ambitious. Do the most important thing you can think of doing every year and then your career will take care of itself. ~ Henry Kissinger,
1319:Don’t you ever get tired of believing? Don’t you ever want proof?"
"You must never stop believing. That’s the most important thing. ~ Anthony Doerr,
1320:For me, the most important thing is to continue to play well and to be a positive figure and hopefully a role model for kids as well. ~ Magnus Carlsen,
1321:Getting history right is pretty much the most important thing a citizen can do in a nation at war with itself--as ours was. And is. ~ Brooke Gladstone,
1322:I am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer. I think the most important thing is that you have to really choose the players carefully. ~ Nina Jacobson,
1323:I think the inner person is the most important.... I would like to see an invention that keeps the mind alert. That's what is important. ~ Julia Child,
1324:I think the most important technique is to ground everything, to make fantasy world grounded and relatable, just great characters. ~ Timur Bekmambetov,
1325:I think the most important thing for an actor is to stay current and stay relevant, and those are probably the hardest things to do. ~ Dylan McDermott,
1326:I think the most important thing really was that you could take very personal ideas and present them to an audience in entertaining ways. ~ Ron Howard,
1327:One might say that the ability to evaluate one's own ability is the most important skill of all. Without it, improvement is impossible. ~ Ryan Holiday,
1328:One of the most important things a real investor needs to say is this; “I want my money back and I also want to keep my investments. ~ Robert Kiyosaki,
1329:Pulling yourself up again is the most important part of your life. Getting out of the bottom that you put everything into - yourself! ~ Milton Resnick,
1330:that you have three of the most important virtues a policeman can have,” he thought. “You are stubborn and logical, and completely calm. ~ Maj Sj wall,
1331:The most important lesson I've learned in this business is how to say no. I have said no to a lot of temptations, and I am glad I did. ~ Penelope Cruz,
1332:The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. ~ Maria Montessori,
1333:The most important questions a human can ever ask must surely deserve the most convincing answers, not simply the most comforting? ~ David Alan Harvey,
1334:The most important thing is just like creativity and music. It's the one thing that you never lose if you just stay loyal to that. ~ Pharrell Williams,
1335:The most important thing is love,” said Leigh-Cheri. “I know that now. There’s no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon. ~ Tom Robbins,
1336:The most important thing that you can teach your children is that Well-being abounds. And that Well-being is naturally flowing to them. ~ Esther Hicks,
1337:The shape is the most important to me because it is what really matters and what's really missing in the market. Anything else is easier. ~ Beth Ditto,
1338:To spread a nice and good message to restore confidence among the fans around the world, because the fans are the most important thing. ~ David Ginola,
1339:What is the most important thing you could be working on in the world right now? ... And if you're not working on that, why aren't you? ~ Aaron Swartz,
1340:Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau,
1341:I know that in my life my girlfriends are one of the most important relationships I have going through the good times and the bad times. ~ Cameron Diaz,
1342:Isn’t it strange how we always seem to remember the trivial things from our daily lives... yet we so often forget the most important ones? ~ F bio Moon,
1343:It was so important for me to lose everything, because I found out what the most important thing is, which is to be true to yourself. ~ Ellen DeGeneres,
1344:Repeating is the whole of living and by repeating comes understanding, and understanding is to some the most important part of living. ~ Gertrude Stein,
1345:The headline is the most important element in most advertisements. It is the telegram which decides the reader whether to read the copy. ~ David Ogilvy,
1346:The most important points to remember are these: Make sure you gather every piece of clothing in the house and be sure to handle each one. ~ Marie Kond,
1347:The most important thing is insight, that is to be - curious - to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does. ~ William Faulkner,
1348:The most important thing is that you have to listen to your truths, desires and wants. And you have to believe you deserve all of it. ~ Whoopi Goldberg,
1349:To me, the most important thing is to tell a good story. If I can do that, I think that enlightenment, respect of nature, etc. follows. ~ Kathryn Lasky,
1350:Upon the subject of education ... I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. ~ Abraham Lincoln,
1351:Yet one of the most important things we have to learn is how to cope with abundance and with our hunger for yet more abundance ~ Jennifer Michael Hecht,
1352:A ghost is not a fact in itself; rather, it is a symbol for a need. The most important aspect of the ghost is the need that creates it. ~ Zinzi Clemmons,
1353:Don't be too ambitious. Do the most important thing you can think of doing every year and then your career will take care of itself. ~ Henry A Kissinger,
1354:Each genre has something to teach me about the others. Not all the lessons are transferable, but many of the most important ones are. ~ Julianna Baggott,
1355:Eventually the Korean War will be understood as one of the most destructive and one of the most important wars of the twentieth century. ~ Bruce Cumings,
1356:If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. ~ Mark Zuckerberg,
1357:I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself. ~ Paulo Coelho,
1358:I think that probably the most important thing about our education was that it taught us to question even those things we thought we knew. ~ Thabo Mbeki,
1359:it taught me the most important thing I know about science: that experiments are not about getting the world to do what you want it to do. ~ Hope Jahren,
1360:Listening was the most important thing I accomplished each day because it would build the foundation of my leadership for years to come. ~ Satya Nadella,
1361:One of the most important things in politics is you've got to keep your mind infinitely curious and alive to what is happening differently. ~ Tony Blair,
1362:the adoption of a confident manner is one of the most important things you can do to make yourself a more interesting, dynamic personality. ~ Les Giblin,
1363:The most important contribution you can make to your company is to be a leader, accept responsibility for results, and dare to go forward. ~ Brian Tracy,
1364:The most important thing - and I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it a hundred times - if you marry a man, marry the right one. ~ Sheryl Sandberg,
1365:The most important thing here is to largely ignore what customers say, and instead watch what they do or track where they spend money. ~ Scott D Anthony,
1366:The most important thing in fighting was shooting, next the various tactics in coming into a fight and last of all flying ability itself. ~ Billy Bishop,
1367:...The most important thing, I think. You can't run from your past. You have to take it for what it is and realize that it's part of you. ~ Lisa Wingate,
1368:The most important thing that I learned in growing up is that forgiveness is something that, when you do it, you free yourself to move on. ~ Tyler Perry,
1369:The preparation for conception to me is one of the most important things, if we are we interested in the general progress of our species. ~ Laura Huxley,
1370:The way I was raised, family was always the most important. When I had our first daughter, Natasha, I knew that's what I wanted to do. ~ Candace Cameron,
1371:3.6) In Japan"The most important work assigned to women in Japan is child-making. Maternity is considered as the principal role of woman..." ~ The Mother,
1372:An actor can play two or three lines where he says one thing, but plays the opposite. That's the most important moving part of a film. ~ Jaco Van Dormael,
1373:...and I am sitting in this park watching an old couple almost cry together, and I want this to be the most important thing I do all year. ~ Neil Hilborn,
1374:Curiosity takes courage. The most important promises are the ones you make to yourself. Pay Attention. Appreciate. Listen. Imagine. ~ Mary Anne Radmacher,
1375:Do we tend to recall the most important parts of a novel or those that speak most directly to us, the truest lines or the flashiest ones? ~ Julian Barnes,
1376:If it isn’t for the writing, we’ve got nothing. Writers are the most important people in Hollywood. And we must never let them know it. ~ Irving Thalberg,
1377:I have found that in this business, one of the most important things is sincerity. If you can fake that, you can do just about anything. ~ Kinky Friedman,
1378:Life is not a long vacation, but a constant learning process. And the most important lesson is learning to love. Loving better and better. ~ Paulo Coelho,
1379:one of the most important things to me is that my children and grandchildren are curious. Because, if you’re not curious, you’re not smart. ~ Evan Thomas,
1380:Power is essentially amoral and one of the most important skills to acquire is the ability to see circumstances rather than good or evil. ~ Robert Greene,
1381:The most important thing about skating is that it teaches you to do the things you should do before you do the things you want to do. ~ Barbara Ann Scott,
1382:The most important thing is transforming our minds, for a new way of thinking, a new outlook: we should strive to develop a new inner world. ~ Dalai Lama,
1383:The most important thing was the creation of a... a standard, where hundreds of companies build hardware that can all run the same software. ~ Bill Gates,
1384:What do you get out of it? You’d lose one of the most important aspects in this deal, the ability to veto any decision.”
“I get you. ~ Jennifer Probst,
1385:What will your children remember? Moments spent listening, talking, playing and sharing together may be the most important times of all. ~ Gloria Gaither,
1386:Everyone I know thinks television is the most important part of my life. I did it for the money! I was able to send my daughter to college. ~ Jack Germond,
1387:everything else is stripped away,” the Colonel said, “that’s all you will have left, your honor, the most important thing in a man’s life. ~ Winston Groom,
1388:I always thought I would have boys, but as a father, when your kids are born and they’re healthy and happy, that’s the most important thing. ~ Rob Mariano,
1389:I believe truly that Canada is a living history and we're going through some of the most important time in this country's short 150 years. ~ Joseph Boyden,
1390:I feel that the most important requirement in success is learning to overcome failure. You must learn to tolerate it, but never accept it ~ Reggie Jackson,
1391:If you said, 'What is the most important aspect of winning football games?' I don't think I could give you an answer to that question. ~ Cris Collinsworth,
1392:In fact, the most important reforms are those needed, without new laws, at various levels of Government, in work practices and procedures. ~ Narendra Modi,
1393:I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism. ~ Warren Buffett,
1394:One of the most important lessons she'd recently learned was that looking strong and confident was sometimes all the people required of you. ~ Stuart Hill,
1395:One of the most important responsibilities in the Christian life is to care about others, smile at them, and be a friend to the friendless. ~ James Dobson,
1396:Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do. ~ Dave Grohl,
1397:The most important advance in the next fifty years will be in the realm of the spiritual - dealing with the spirit of thought. ~ Charles Proteus Steinmetz,
1398:The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau,
1399:The writing is the most important bit, and performing it is just closing the circle because I'm less likely to screw it up than anyone else. ~ John Cleese,
1400:We all would love sometimes to be free from our own knowledge. It is even the most difficult to unlearn - as the most important problems are. ~ Ernst Haas,
1401:You are the most important part of the family. Take care of yourself first. Then you'll be able to take care of everyone else even better. ~ Deepak Chopra,
1402:You have so much love in you. Trust your firends and family. They're all you have, but they're precious, the most important part of your life. ~ Deb Baker,
1403:Arguably the most important ordering that one will ever contemplate is existence in its totality. ~ Tyler Volk, Metapatterns - Across Space, Time, and Mind,
1404:I made a promise. The kind of promise you don't break because, if you break it you've broken part of yourself, maybe the most important part. ~ Rick Yancey,
1405:In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it. ~ Albert Einstein,
1406:MRS. ANTROBUS: What, George? What have you lost? ANTROBUS: The most important thing of all: The desire to begin again, to start building. ~ Thornton Wilder,
1407:On the European Front the most important development of the past year has been the crushing offensive of the Great Armies of Russia. ~ Franklin D Roosevelt,
1408:She once again reminded herself that the most important thing was to never let anyone see her own self-doubt.  Fake it ’til you make it, ~ Sharon Hannaford,
1409:Tella was the most important person in the world to Scarlett, but it always broke Scarlett to know her sister did not feel the same way. ~ Stephanie Garber,
1410:The most important aspect of our system was training. Whatever happens on a Saturday afternoon has already occurred on the training ground. ~ Alex Ferguson,
1411:The most important definition of an actor, the job of the actor, is to serve the writer, not yourself. Way too many actors serve themselves. ~ Kevin Spacey,
1412:The most important of all sciences man can and must learn is the science of living so as to do the least evil and the greatest possible good. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
1413:The most important question to ask on the job is not 'What am I getting?' The most important question to ask on the job is 'What am I becoming?' ~ Jim Rohn,
1414:The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that. ~ Norton Juster,
1415:The most important step in emancipating oneself from social controls is the ability to find rewards in the events of each moment. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
1416:The most important thing about Olympics, of course, is the games and not the opening ceremony. It's weird the way it gets inverted sometimes. ~ Danny Boyle,
1417:The willingness to keep learning is, I think, the most important thing about trying to be good at anything. You never want to stop learning. ~ Emile Hirsch,
1418:To love, to be loved, and to be useful: these are the most important elements in a happy, meaningful life, and they can be achieved anywhere. ~ Syrie James,
1419:We are just here, right? We are just people doing our thing. And the most important aspect of anything we do is our motivation, why we do it. ~ Krishna Das,
1420:When people ask me what really changed my life, I tell them that absolutely the most important thing was changing what I demanded on myself. ~ Tony Robbins,
1421:Children are the most important asset in a country. For them to become that asset, they must receive education and love from their parents. ~ Nelson Mandela,
1422:Family is the most important thing in the world. If everything ended tomorrow and my family was still there, I'd be the happiest man alive. ~ Landon Donovan,
1423:Filtering the people we allow into our lives is probably the most important factor in determining whether we will live a happy life or not. ~ James Altucher,
1424:I feel that one of the most important lessons that can be learned is that what we "see" may be different than what is actually in front of us. ~ Marc Singer,
1425:I made a promise. The kind of promise you don’t break because, if you break it, you’ve broken part of yourself, maybe the most important part. ~ Rick Yancey,
1426:It’s like I’d been born with a blind spot, and was always missing something. And what I missed was always the most important thing of all. ~ Haruki Murakami,
1427:The most important aspect of the relationship between the president and the secretary of state is that they both understand who is president. ~ Dean Acheson,
1428:The most important business of one generation is the raising of the next generation. Nothing else you do in life will be as deeply satisfying. ~ George Will,
1429:The most important of all rights is the right to life, and I cannot foresee a day when domesticated animals will be granted that right in law. ~ J M Coetzee,
1430:The most important social influence in shaping young people’s religious lives is the religious life modeled and taught to them by their parents. ~ Anonymous,
1431:The most important thing I came to tell you is that I want your oath that you will keep an open mind...about everything that may seem impossible. ~ P C Cast,
1432:The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one. ~ Jill Churchill,
1433:The power of concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one's eyes without seeing anything. ~ Haruki Murakami,
1434:The power to concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one’s eyes without seeing anything. ~ Haruki Murakami,
1435:We shouldn't live as if [other worlds] mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place. ~ Philip Pullman,
1436:Whatever you expected for your life, this is the most important thing you will ever do. Look around this room. Every life here is in your hands. ~ G P Ching,
1437:Don't sacrifice your life to work and ideals. The most important things in life are human relations. I found that out too late. ~ Katharine Susannah Prichard,
1438:Even though I was only sixteen, I knew enough to understand that it was one of the most important and most powerful moments I would ever have. ~ Jessica Park,
1439:If God’s words determine reality, then of all the things a pastor does, speaking the words of God to the congregation is the most important. ~ Carl R Trueman,
1440:I made a promise . The kind of promise you don’t break because, if you break it, you’ve broken part of yourself, maybe the most important part. ~ Rick Yancey,
1441:In the modern age where everything is connected to everything, the most important thing about what you can do is what you can do with others. ~ Paddy Ashdown,
1442:I think energy is the most important thing that we can give to people as performers. Anything else is a little bit pretentious. But energy is not. ~ Yoko Ono,
1443:I think the most important feeling in the world is friendship. The friendship between Michiru and Haruka is so strong, that it becomes love. ~ Naoko Takeuchi,
1444:Lou Reed is the most important definitive writer in modern rock. Not because of the stuff that he does, but the direction that he will take it. ~ David Bowie,
1445:No matter what anyone's saying to you from outside, the most important conversation is the one you are gaving with yourself on the inside ~ Robert T Kiyosaki,
1446:One of the most important forms of heroism is the heroism of conciousness, the heroism of thought: the willingness to tolerate aloneness. ~ Nathaniel Branden,
1447:Perhaps the most important vision of all is develop a sense of self, a sense of your own destiny, a sense of unique mission and role in life. ~ Stephen Covey,
1448:The ostrich burying its head in the sand does at any rate wish to convey the impression that its head is the most important part of it. ~ Katherine Mansfield,
1449:There are heroes and schmucks in all worlds. The most important thing is whether you are willing to engage in moral struggle against yourself. ~ David Brooks,
1450:Unlike any other time in our history, we have to know that staying in school and getting an education is the most important thing you can do. ~ Alexis Herman,
1451:We're going to see leadership emerge as the most important element of business - the attribute that is highest in demand and shortest in supply. ~ Tom Peters,
1452:You told me not so long ago that if things come easily, they aren’t worth having. You said it’s the hard wins that are the most important. ~ Samantha Christy,
1453:feminism—and she has shown up to the most important meetings of her life with wet hair and no makeup on. Over her decade-plus career at Google and ~ Anonymous,
1454:For me, the singer is actually the most important element. When I work with someone, it all comes down to whether I like the singer or not. ~ Steve Lillywhite,
1455:Honestly, that is the most important thing to me: Can I continue to live up to my own expectations of myself - and not fall back into slacking? ~ Alice Walker,
1456:I'm bored by films that revolve around a trick. I kind of know if a film is right for me; all the most important decisions are made intuitively. ~ Mary Harron,
1457:I'm the same way about the bookshop. You know, I walk around and I feel the whole world is in there, the most important stories of all time. ~ Caroline Kepnes,
1458:I think the most important thing is to, without belligerence, stand up for what want. Argue compellingly if someone tries to change your script. ~ Shane Black,
1459:It's been one of the most important tools for me in personal growth for understanding myself, how I am, and what effect I do have on other people. ~ Joe Rogan,
1460:My mom always said fighting with me as a kid was like going to court. I'm trying to realize that being right is not the most important thing. ~ Gillian Jacobs,
1461:Observing and then letting go is one of the most important skills to acquire in the quest to create positive change, as is knowledge of stillness. ~ Teal Swan,
1462:Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. ~ John F Kennedy,
1463:So as I thought about it, the most important "tool" you can have today in business is insatiable curiosity. The minute you lose it, you're dead. ~ Steve Rubel,
1464:The art of automobile design has progressed, until today it is regarded as one of the most important factors in the marketing of the automobile. ~ Harley Earl,
1465:[The daguerreotype] itself must undoubtedly be regarded as the most important, and perhaps the most extraordinary triumph of modern science. ~ Edgar Allan Poe,
1466:The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things. ~ Stephen Covey,
1467:The most important thing in my life, its leitmotif, has been the constant and close contacts with working people, with workers and peasants. ~ Leonid Brezhnev,
1468:The most important thing in terms of your circle of competence is not how large the area of it is, but how well you've defined the perimeter. ~ Warren Buffett,
1469:The most important thing that ever happens in prayer is letting ourselves be loved by God. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). ~ Brennan Manning,
1470:The most important unmeasured benefit of all, the extension of life expectancy, occurred much more rapidly from 1890 to 1950 than afterward. ~ Robert J Gordon,
1471:We try so hard to be happy that we end up missing the most important parts of our lives and destroying the very peace that we were seeking ~ J Mark G Williams,
1472:All the stats don't mean a thing if we don't get the win. The most important stat is the win. Nothing else really matters if you don't get the win. ~ Pau Gasol,
1473:Eating is one of the most important aspects of living. I like indulging. I like to eat one food at a time, to savor each individual thing. ~ Marco Pierre White,
1474:Freedom only exists when love is present.That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it. ~ Paulo Coelho,
1475:If it happens to you, then I have to deal with it too. You watch my back, and I watch yours. It’s the most important rule of being best friends. ~ Aly Martinez,
1476:I think if the United States gave anything to culture at large in the 20th century, the most important contribution made was the popular song. ~ Linda Ronstadt,
1477:Love is the most important. The most necessary human emotion. Not just romantic love. Love. The ability of human beings to connect”. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
1478:No matter what anyone is saying to you from outside, the most important conversation is the one you are having with yourself on the inside. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki,
1479:Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another. ~ Anne Lamott,
1480:One of the most important decisions you can make to ensure your long-term happiness is to decide to use whatever life gives you in the moment ~ Anthony Robbins,
1481:Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow. ~ Seth Godin,
1482:The Law of Forced Efficiency says, “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important things. ~ Brian Tracy,
1483:The most important thing about marriage is that the man must not let the woman feel downtrodden simply because she is a woman and he is a man. ~ Saddam Hussein,
1484:The most important thing I've learned since becoming CEO is context. It's how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it. ~ Jeffrey R Immelt,
1485:The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them you immediately begin to create momentum. ~ Tony Robbins,
1486:The pianoforte is the most important of all musical instruments; its invention was to music what the invention of printing was to poetry. ~ George Bernard Shaw,
1487:The theoretical determination of the fine structure constant is certainly the most important of the unsolved problems of modern physics. ~ Wolfgang Ernst Pauli,
1488:Unselfish love for all people without exception is the most important point of convergence among all significant spiritualities and religions. ~ Stephen G Post,
1489:You're the last Olympian,' I said. 'And the most important.' And why is that, Percy Jackson?' Because Hope survives best at the hearth,' I said. ~ Rick Riordan,
1490:Adding value to someone else’s life is one of the most important things you can do with your life, and it has nothing to do with money. ~ Joshua Fields Millburn,
1491:Develop a Positive Addiction Here is one of the most important of the so-called secrets of success. You can actually develop a “positive addiction ~ Brian Tracy,
1492:Getting your core values defined and properly calibrated is one of the most important steps in redirecting your life toward your grandest vision. ~ Darren Hardy,
1493:If we single-task on the most important project for two weeks and still aren’t able to make a big dent, then I think we should all find new day jobs. ~ Gene Kim,
1494:It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important." - Sherlock Holmes in A Case of Identity - 1891 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle,
1495:It is strange, but true, that the most important turning-points of life often come at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected ways. ~ Napoleon Hill,
1496:It's the most important decision I've had to make since 1978 when I decided to get abikini wax. [On his running for California Governor] ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger,
1497:Kids need to know they're the most important thing in the world to you, and if that means quitting your job to prove it, then you have to prove it. ~ Jim Carrey,
1498:SETI is probably the most important quest of our time , and it amazes me that governments and corporations are not supporting it sufficiently. ~ Arthur C Clarke,
1499:Taxation is not a technical matter. It is preeminently a political and philosophical issue, perhaps the most important of all political issues. ~ Thomas Piketty,
1500:The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence. ~ Ron Paul,

IN CHAPTERS [251/251]



  109 Integral Yoga
   36 Occultism
   18 Psychology
   16 Philosophy
   11 Christianity
   7 Education
   4 Science
   3 Yoga
   3 Theosophy
   2 Fiction
   1 Sufism
   1 Poetry
   1 Integral Theory
   1 Alchemy


   74 The Mother
   42 Sri Aurobindo
   30 Satprem
   18 Carl Jung
   14 Nolini Kanta Gupta
   13 Aleister Crowley
   6 Franz Bardon
   5 Plotinus
   5 Plato
   5 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
   4 Rudolf Steiner
   4 James George Frazer
   4 A B Purani
   3 Jordan Peterson
   3 Friedrich Nietzsche
   2 Thubten Chodron
   2 Sri Ramana Maharshi
   2 Sri Ramakrishna
   2 Jorge Luis Borges
   2 H P Lovecraft
   2 Henry David Thoreau
   2 Alice Bailey
   2 Aldous Huxley


   9 Questions And Answers 1953
   8 Magick Without Tears
   8 Agenda Vol 08
   6 The Practice of Psycho therapy
   6 Record of Yoga
   6 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
   6 On Education
   6 Letters On Yoga IV
   5 The Secret Doctrine
   5 The Practice of Magical Evocation
   5 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
   5 Questions And Answers 1955
   5 Questions And Answers 1954
   5 Mysterium Coniunctionis
   5 Liber ABA
   5 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
   5 Agenda Vol 02
   4 The Synthesis Of Yoga
   4 The Secret Of The Veda
   4 The Golden Bough
   4 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
   4 Talks
   4 Some Answers From The Mother
   4 Questions And Answers 1956
   4 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
   3 The Life Divine
   3 The Human Cycle
   3 Maps of Meaning
   3 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
   3 Essays Divine And Human
   3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
   3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
   3 Aion
   3 Agenda Vol 10
   3 Agenda Vol 01
   2 Words Of The Mother III
   2 Words Of The Mother II
   2 Words Of The Mother I
   2 Walden
   2 Twilight of the Idols
   2 The Problems of Philosophy
   2 The Perennial Philosophy
   2 The Future of Man
   2 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
   2 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
   2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
   2 Lovecraft - Poems
   2 Letters On Yoga III
   2 Letters On Yoga II
   2 Let Me Explain
   2 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
   2 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
   2 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
   2 Agenda Vol 11
   2 Agenda Vol 09


0.04 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The bullocks seem to like this man and this is the most important
  point.

0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  realisation of the Divine - must be the most important thing to
  you, the only thing worth living for.
  --
  to do, and the most important if you want to conquer the
  difficulty, is to obey.

0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Presence is one of the most important points of the sadhana.
  Ask X, he will tell you that the Presence is not a matter of faith
  --
  practice, and for this the most important thing to avoid is useless
  talking. It is not work but useless talk which takes us away from

0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Certainly, the most important occupation is to develop and perfect oneself, but that can be done very well, and even better, while
  working. It is for you to know what work it is that most interests

0 1954-08-25 - what is this personality? and when will she come?, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   As soon as I found outand no one told me, I found out through an experienceas soon as I found out that there was a discovery to be made within myself, well, it became the most important thing in the world. It took precedence over everything else!
   And when, as I told you, I chanced upon a book or an individual that could give me just a little clue and tell me, Here. If you do such and such, you will find your pathwell I charged into it like a cyclone and nothing could have stopped me.

0 1957-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   The most commonplace circumstances, people, the everyday events of life, the most seemingly insignificant things, all belong to one or another of these three categories of examiners. In this considerably complex organization of tests, those events generally considered the most important in life are really the easiest of all examinations to pass, for they find you prepared and on your guard. One stumbles more easily over the little pebbles on the path, for they attract no attention.
   The qualities more particularly required for the tests of physical Nature are endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and fearlessness.

0 1960-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   For the placement of words is not the same in English and in French. In English, for example, the place an adverb occupies is of major importance for the precise meaning. In French also, but generally its not the same! If at least it were exactly the opposite of English it would be easier, but its not exactly the opposite. Its the same thing for the word order in a series of modifiers or any string of words; usually in English, for example, the most important word comes first and the least important last. In French, its usually the opposite but it doesnt always work!
   The spirit of the two languages is not the same. Something always escapes. This must surely be why revelations (as Sri Aurobindo calls them) sometimes come to me in one language and sometimes in the other. And it does not depend on the state of consciousness Im in, it depends on what has to be said.

0 1961-03-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   When I told you last time about that experience [of March 11, with Pavitra] the night I met you and was saying good-bye, I neglected to mention one very important point, the most important, in fact: I was leaving the subjection to mental functioning permanently behind That was the meaning of my departure.
   For a very long time now I have been watching all the phases of the subjection to mental functioning come undone, one after another for a very long time. That night was the end of it, the last phase: I was leaving this subjection behind and rising up into a realm of freedom. You had been very, very helpful, as I told you. Well, this latest experience was something else! It came to make me look squarely at the fact of our incapacity!
  --
   A sort of power over circumstances does come to me, however, as if I could rise above it all and give the subconscient a bit of a work-over. Naturally this has some results: entire areas are brought under control. Thats the most important thing. Individuals get the repercussions later because they are very very coagulated, a bit hard! A lack of plasticity.
   Take the case of this man Im not naming Ive been training him, working with him, for more than thirty years and I still havent managed to get him to do things spontaneously, according to the needs of the moment, without all his preconceived ideas. Thats the point where he resists: when things have to be done quickly he follows his usual rule and it takes forever! This was illustrated strikingly that night. I told him, Just look: its there its THEREhurry up and warm it a little and Ill go. Ah! He didnt protest, didnt say anything, but he did things exactly according to his own preconceptions.

0 1961-06-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   D. asked me if changing the time of her japa had much importance. I told her she can change the time if she has to, provided she remains sincere thats the most important thing.
   These are small details. I myself am unable to do it at fixed hours; I had always hoped to do it between 5 and 6 in the afternoon, but I usually cant manage to go upstairs before ten to six! So so I do it from 6 to 7.

0 1961-09-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   And I think that Savitri is the most important thing to speak about.
   From time to time I use a line from Savitri, placing it in the book like an open window. Thats all I can do.

0 1961-10-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I keep feeling that Sri Aurobindo wants the conclusion to be swift; and I myself (probably not with his power of comprehension) have a vision, a sort of feeling coming from a great height above, that the most important part of the book should be very abruptlike breaking through a door, flinging it wide-open, and emerging in a rush of light. Thats all. Now keep quiet and see what happens.
   ***

0 1961-12-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   A book like that (sufficiently veiled, of course), written in the simplest way possible (like I wrote The Science of Living, I believe)and its fine, you speak to people in their own language. Above all, no philosophy! None! You simply tell some extraordinary stories in the same way you would tell an ordinary story. But the Story is there, thats the most important thing.
   It started in my infancy the Story was already there.

0 1962-08-28, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   That seems to be the process, or at least one of the most important processes.
   And its growing more and more prominent. I spend almost every night in that realm; and even during the day, as soon as the body is motionless, theres this perception of the two vibrations, and of the physical vibration almost becoming porous.

0 1963-07-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Thats too muchagitation is too much, its rather a lack of rest. Not agitation really, but something that lacks the rest of certainty. I constantly catch my cells being like that. Naturally I react, but for them its a very normal state: always straining after the next moment, never the quietude of the present moment. The result (the words I use give a very concrete character to something rather fluid), the result is the feeling that you have to bear or endure, and the haste to get out of that enduring, along with the hope (a very faint and flimsy hope) that the next moment will be better. Thats how it is from moment to moment, from moment to moment, from moment to moment. As soon as the Consciousness comes (gesture of descent) and concentrates, as soon as I bring the Consciousness into the present moment, everything becomes quiet, immobile, eternal. But if I am not CONSTANTLY attentive, the other condition [of restlessness] comes almost as a subconsciousness: its always there. And VERY tiringit must be one of the most important sources of fatigue in mankind. Especially here (Mother touches her forehead and temples), its very tiring. Only when you can live in the eternity of the present minute does it all stopeverything becomes white, immobile, calm, everything is fine.
   But it means constant vigilanceconstant. Its infinitely more difficult than when one worked even in the vital; in the vital, its nothing, its childs play in comparison. But here, phew! Because, you see, in the mind or the vital, its all movements of organization, of action, of choice, of decisionits very easy to decide, to rule! But that cellular tension is there EVERY SECOND: its the activity inherent in material existence. Its only when you go into samadhi that it stops. That is, when outwardly you are in trance. Then it stops.

0 1964-10-14, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I remember, once, they held an exhibition on Germany at the Library. They put up a long quotation from Sri Aurobindo in which he said, Here is what the Germans THINK OF THEMSELVES and there followed a whole quotationoh, what a quotation! Anyway, they are the race of the future, of geniuses, they will save the world and so on. But they put up the whole thing without the first sentence! So I arrive there (at the time, I could see clearly), and what do I see! I remembered what Sri Aurobindo had written, Here is what the Germans THINK OF THEMSELVES, SO I told them, But you forgot the most important thing, you must add this. You should have seen their faces, mon petit!
   Its this dishonesty thats frightening they cut out and remove all that bothers them and leave only what suits them.

0 1966-11-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   the most important point is what we could call the unreality of deterioration, in other words, everything that isnt harmonious or is disorganized increasingly gives the sense of an illusionits increasingly an illusion and the sense that a certain inner movement of consciousness would be enough for that not to be.
   There, the problem comes up again. Because there are various detailed experiences (in tiny details), detailed experiences of different attitudes of consciousness to find out which of them is effective. Its a whole field of study. Its microscopic, of course, but extremely interesting. And then, the answer is always the same; its so lovely: When you forget that you are, when there only remains the Lord, all difficulties instantly disappear. Instantly: the previous second, the difficulty was there; the next second, gone. But its not something that can be done artificially; its not some mental or personal will to take this attitude: it must be spontaneous. And when its spontaneous, then all difficulties INSTANTLY disappear.

0 1967-02-18, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   So what should be done there (and what I am trying to do) is the same work of receptive silence and to let inspiration, the inspirational consciousness, gather the necessary elements. For that we must be very tranquil. We must be very supple, in the sense of surrendered; I mean, allow as little habitual activity as possible to mix inbe almost like an automaton. But with the full perception of the consciousness trying to be expressed, so that nothing gets mixed in with it. Thats the most important thing: to receive this consciousness and hold it like really like something sacred, without anything getting mixed in with it, like that. So then, there is a problem of attraction, we could say, and of concretization in the formula.4 I always tell myself that if I knew many languages, it would make use of all that; unfortunately I know only two (I know only two thoroughly) and I have only very superficial and minimal glimpses of two or three others thats not enough. Only, I have been in contact with very different methods: the method of the Far East and the Sanskrit method, and of course the methods of the West. It does give a sort of base, but its not sufficient I am at the opposite extreme from erudition. I have always felt that erudition shrivels up thoughtit parches the brain. (But I have great respect for scholars, oh! indeed, and I seek their advice, but for myself it wont do!)
   Once, very long ago, when Sri Aurobindo was telling me about himself, that is, of his childhood, his education, I put the question to him, I asked him, Why am I, as an individual being, so mediocre? I can do anything; all that I have tried to do I have done, but never in a superior way: always like this (gesture to an average level). Then he answered me (at the time I took it as a kindness or commiseration), Thats because it gives great supplenessa great suppleness and a vast scope; because those who have perfection are concentrated and specialized. As I said, I took it simply like a caress to comfort a child. But now I realize that the most important thing is not to have any fixity: nothing should be set, definitive, like the sense of a perfection in the realization that puts a total stop to the forward march. The sense of incapacity (with the meaning I said of mediocrity, of something by no means exceptional) leaves you in a sort of expectation (gesture of aspiration upward) of something better. And then, the most important thing is supplenesssuppleness, suppleness. Suppleness and breadth: reject nothing as useless or bad or inferiornothing; set nothing up as really superior and beautifulnothing. Remain ever open, ever open.
   The ideal is to have this suppleness and receptivity and surrender, that is, so total an acceptance of the Influence that no matter what comes the instrument adapts itself instantly to express it naturally, spontaneously and effortlessly. With everything, of course: with the plastic arts, with music, with writing.

0 1967-03-04, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   One the most important, naturallyis the way we could call spiritual, which is that of the contact with the Consciousness Love-Consciousness-Power, that is; these three aspects: supreme Love-Consciousness-Power. And the contact, the identification: to make all the material cells capable of receiving Him and expressing Himof BEING That.
   Of all the ways, that is the most powerful and the most indispensable.

0 1967-03-29, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   And above all, the most important:
   To be young is never to admit the irreparable.

0 1967-04-19, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   To do things properly, we would need a small educational booklet for the children of the future. A preconceptional booklet to prepare the father and mother (especially the mother, thats the most important). Then a booklet for the first three years of life: the qualities required, the attitude to be taken. At any rate, the father and mother should first know the possibility (at least the possibility) of a child being more than a mere animal man.
   Then, conception should take place entirely outside of desire. Thats another very difficult condition to be fulfilled.

0 1967-04-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Sri Aurobindo always said that the most important, but also the most difficult thing, is to know how to keep ones BALANCE IN INTENSITY. To have the intensity of aspiration, the intensity of effort, the intensity of the march forward, while at the same time keeping ones balance the balance of perfect peace. Thats the ideal condition. But its difficult.
   (silence)

0 1967-06-14, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Things are somewhat better. There is still some friction. Traitors, enemies, oh! Now they say that Indonesia and Pakistan are up to something. And with EVERYTHING, you know, from the biggest to the smallest, from what seems the most important (what disturbs the most things, at any rate) to the least little physical discomfort, its like that: a very small, such a very small consciousness, petty and limited like that, and narrow, which makes a mountain out of a molehill.
   There you are.

0 1967-07-15, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   What remains often the events that the mind regards as the most memorable or the most important in a life, but the moments when the psychic took partconsciously took part in the occurrence. Thats what remains.
   I could have narrated many such memories, its very interesting.

0 1967-07-26, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   As if that was constantly saying, But dont take things seriously! Dont take things seriously, dont take things seriously thats what makes you unhappy! Thats what makes you unhappy, it makes you unhappy, you must learn to smile, like that. And above all, to make fun of ourselves, thats the most important thing: to see how ridiculous we are the slightest pain and we are full of self-pity, oh!
   At times one protests.

0 1968-09-07, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I have told you many times, and couldnt repeat it too often, that we are not made of a piece. Within ourselves we have lots of states of being, and each state of being has its own life. All that is gathered together in a single body, as long as you have one, and acts through a single body; thats what gives you the sense of a single person, a single being. But there are many of them, and there are in particular concentrations on different planes: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, a mental being, a psychic being, and many others with all possible intermediaries. So when you leave your body, all those beings will scatter. Its only if you are a very advanced yogi and have been capable of unifying your being around the divine center that those beings remain linked together. If you havent been able to unify yourself, then at the time of death, all that will scatter: every being will go back to its own region. With the vital being, for example, your various desires will separate and each of them will go and chase its realization quite independently, because there will no longer be a physical being to hold them together. While if you have united your consciousness to the psychic consciousness, when you die you will remain conscious of your psychic being, and the psychic being will return to the psychic world which is a world of bliss, joy, peace, tranquillity, and growing knowledge. But if you have lived in your vital and all its impulses, each impulse will try to realize itself here and there. For instance, for the miser who was concentrated on his money, when he dies the part of his vital that was concerned with his money will hook on there and will keep watching over the money so no one takes it. People wont see him, but he is there nonetheless, and very unhappy if something happens to his dear money. Now, if you live exclusively in your physical consciousness (which is difficult, because, after all, you have thoughts and feelings), if you live exclusively in your physical, when the physical being disappears, you disappear along with it, its over. There is a spirit of the form: your form has a spirit that lives on for seven days after your death. The doctors have declared you dead, but the spirit of your form is alive, and not only alive but conscious in most cases. It lasts for seven to eight days, and after that, it too dissolves I am not talking about yogis, I am talking about ordinary people. Yogis have no laws, its quite different; for them the world is different. I am talking about ordinary people living an ordinary life; for them its like that. So the conclusion is that if you want to preserve your consciousness, it would be better to center it on a part of your being which is immortal; otherwise it will evaporate like a flame into thin air. And happily so, because if it were otherwise, there might be gods or kinds of superior men who would create hells and heavens as they do in their material imagination, inside which they would shut you up. (Question:) It is said that there is a god of death. Is it true? Yes. As for me, I call him a genius of death. I know him very well. And its an extraordinary organization. You cant imagine how organized it is! I think there are many of those genii of death, hundreds of them. I met at least two of them. One I met in France, the other in Japan, and they were very different. Which leads me to believe that depending on the mental culture, the education, the countries and beliefs, there must be different genii. But there are genii for all manifestations of Nature: there are genii of fire, genii of air, water, rain, wind; and there are genii of death. Any one genius of death is entitled to a certain number of dead every day. Its truly a fantastic organization. Its a sort of alliance between the vital forces and the forces of Nature. If, for example, he decided, Here is the number of people I am entitled to, say four or five, or six, or one or two (it varies from day to day), if he decided so many people would die, hell go straight and set himself up near the person whos going to die. But if you (not the person) happen to be conscious, if you see the genius going to the person but do not want him or her to die, then, if you have a certain occult power, you can tell him, No, I forbid you to take this person. Thats something which happened, not once but several times, in Japan and here. It wasnt the same genius. Which makes me say there must be many of them. If you can tell him, I forbid you to take this person and have the power to send him away, theres nothing he can do but go away; but he wont give up his due and will go elsewhere there will be a death elsewhere. (Question:) Some people, when they are about to die, are aware of it. Why dont they tell the genius to go away? Two things are needed. First, nothing in your being, no part of your being, should wish to die. That doesnt often happen. You always have, somewhere in you, a defeatist: something tired or disgusted, which has had enough, something lazy or which doesnt want to fight and says, Ah, well, let it be over, so much the better. Thats enoughyoure dead. But its a fact: if nothing, absolutely nothing in you consents to die, you will not die. For someone to die, there is always a second, if a hundredth part of a second, when he consents. If there isnt that second of consent, he will not die. But who is certain he doesnt have within himself, somewhere, a tiny bit of a defeatist which just yields and says, Oh well? Hence the need to unify oneself. Whatever the path we may follow, the subject we may study, we always reach the same result. the most important thing for an individual is to unify himself around his divine center; that way he becomes a real individual, master of himself and of his destiny. Otherwise, he is a plaything of the forces, which toss him about like a cork in a stream. He goes where he doesnt want to, is made to do what he doesnt want to, and finally he gets lost in a hole without any way to stop himself doing so. But if you are consciously organized, unified around the divine center, governed and led by it, you are the master of your destiny. Its worth trying. At any rate, I find its better to be the master rather than the slave. The feeling of being pulled by strings and being made to do things you may or may not want to do is a rather unpleasant sensation. Its quite irksome. Well, I dont know, I, for one, found it quite irksome even when I was a small child. When I was five, I began finding it wholly intolerable, and I sought a way for it to be otherwisewithout anyone being able to tell me anything. Because I knew no one capable of helping me, and I didnt have the luck you havesomeone who can tell you, Here is what you must do. There was no one to tell me. I had to find it all by myself. I found it. I began at the age of five. And you, its a long time since you were five?
   Well cut out the end.

0 1968-11-02, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   And P.L. says: That vision comes to me the very day when I am told that the Holy Father has given instructions to his closest collaborators for the formation of a program of action to shake the lethargy of millions of Catholics asleep in the routine of unconscious religious practice.1 Here are the most important names in the committee: X Italys cardinal; Y, Frances cardinal; Z, the Popes factotum; then Msgr. Z
   That same man.

0 1969-01-22, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I think its the most important religious center in India: its on a hilltop, they have an army of trucks carrying people up every day Curious, isnt it?
   And everybody comes, even government people, even scientists, everybody Its the need to ask for help from something more powerful than you are.

0 1969-09-13, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   My fear is that he may still be very much Christian without knowing it, he may be under the impression that Christianity is the most important thing.
   Yes, but he cant do any more for Christianity, thats the thing.

0 1969-11-05, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   For instance, some people had rancor for a long time, without saying anything they are forced to say it. Thats how it is. Theres a very strong pressure for the transformation. And naturally, thats why I am flooded with people. Because theres one point on which I dont yield, its the hours of so-called sleep; from 8 at night till about 8 in the morning, it makes twelve hours during which the inner work can be done, and that I dont want to touch. Of course, twelve hours is a lot: its half of the day So the other twelve hours, its an avalanche. But I am holding on to that, because those are the hours when the most important work is done. (Its a little less, its really like that between 9 and 5 in the morning, rather; thats really when the work is concentrated on the transformation.) Its not that the rest of the time is a denial, not at all: that state of consciousness is immutable. Basically, I dont think there are many minutes, even in a days twenty-four hours, when the body isnt conscious of the divine Presence thats how the body is. But the daytime hours are spent in action, theyre for others; the night hours are for its own transformation.
   So these hours of action are like that. Every day, I see at least three or four people whom it was quite unnecessary to see; so thats noted, but its not a lot; for most people, something is done, its really something getting done. It stirs, you understandit stirs. At times, there are even quite astonishing things.

0 1970-01-28, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The signs abound, they are simple and obvious. the most important event of the sixties is not the trip to the moon, but the trips on drugs, the great hippie migration, and the student unrest throughout the world but where will they go? There is no more room on the teeming beaches, no more room on the bustling roads, no more room in the ever-growing anthills of our cities. The way out is elsewhere.
   But there are many kinds of elsewheres. Those of drugs are uncertain and fraught with danger, and above all dependent on outer meansan experience ought to be obtainable at will and anywhere, in the marketplace as in the solitude of our room, or else it is not an experience but an anomaly or slavery. Those of psychoanalysis are limited, for the moment, to a few dimly lit caves, and above all lack that lever of consciousness which enables us to move about at will, as our own masters and not as helpless witnesses or sickly victims. Those of religion are more illumined, but they too depend on a god or a dogma, and above all confine us within one type of experience, for one can be a prisoner of other worlds as much as of this oneeven more so.
  --
   Sri Aurobindo leads us to a twofold discovery which we urgently need if we want not only to find a way out of our suffocating chaos, but also to transform our world. By following him step by step in his prodigious explorationhis technique of inner spaces, if we may say sowe are led to the most important discovery of all times, to the threshold of the Great Secret which is to change the face of this world, namely, that consciousness is power. Hypnotized as we are by the present inescapable scientific conditions in which we were born, we seem to find hope only in an ever more enormous proliferation of machines, which will see better than we do, hear better than we do, calculate better than we do, heal better than we doand finally perhaps live better than we do.
   (Mother laughs)

0 1970-04-29, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Its difficult difficult to say precisely. We think that this, this appearance (Mother points to her body) is to the ordinary consciousness it seems to be the most important thingits obviously the last thing that will change. And to the ordinary consciousness, it seems to be the last thing that will change because its the most important: that will be the surest sign. But its not that at all! Its not that at all.
   The important thing is this change in the CONSCIOUSNESS which has taken place. All the rest is a consequence. And here, in this material world, it appears the most important to us because its everything is upside down. I dont know how to explain.
   For us, when this [the body] is able to visibly be something different from what it is, well say, Ah, now the thing is done.Thats not true: the thing IS DONE. This [the body] is a secondary consequence.

0 1973-01-20, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I was told something (I dont know if its true), he is reported to have said, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are the most important personalities in the world today I dont know if its true.
   He seems to have been pleased with his visit. He was very happy to see the school and the children.

04.02 - Human Progress, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   This growing fineness and efficiency of the tool has served naturally to develop and enrich man's external possession and dominion. But this increasing power and dominion over Nature is not the most important consequence involved; it is only indicative of still greater values, something momentous, something subjective, pregnant with far-reaching possibilities. For the physical change is nothing compared with the psychological change, the change in the consciousness. In taking up his tool to chip a stone man has started hewing out and moulding entire Nature: he has become endowed with the sense of independence and agency. An animal is a part and parcel of Nature, has no life and movement apart from the life and movement of Natureeven like Wordsworth's child of Nature
   Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,

05.07 - The Observer and the Observed, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The distinction between the two may after all be found to be a matter of stress only, involving no fundamental difference, especially as there are sure to be gradations from the one to the other. the most important landmark, however, the most revolutionary step in modern science would be the discovery of the eternal observer or some sign or image of his seated within the observed phenomena of moving thingspuruah prakritisthohi, as the Gita says.
   ***

07.10 - Diseases and Accidents, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   There is of course a relation between the mind and the body, quite a close relation. In most cases it is the mind that makes the body ill, at least it is the most important factor in the illness. I have said, there are people who keep their mind clear although their body suffers. But it is very rare and very difficult to keep the body healthy when the mind suffers or is un-balanced. It is not impossible, but very, very exceptional. For I explained to you that it is the mind which is the master of the body, the body is an obedient and obliging servant. Unfortunately, one does not usually know how to make use of one's mind, not only so, one makes bad use of it and as bad as possible. The mind possesses a considerable power of formation and of direct action on the body. It is precisely this power which is used by people to make their body ill. As soon as there is something which does not go well, the mind begins to worry about it, makes formations of coming catastrophes, indulges in all kinds of imaginary dangers ahead. Now, instead of thus letting the mind run amuck and play havoc, if the same energy were used for a better purpose, if good formations were made, namely, giving self-confidence to the body, telling it that there is nothing to be anxious about, it is only a passing unease and so on, in that case, the body would be put in a right condition of receptivity and the illness pass away quietly even as it came. That is how the mind is to be taught to give good suggestions to the body and not to throw mud into it. Marvellous results follow if you do it properly.
   When an accident happens there is in it a critical moment. For example, you slip and you fall. Now between the moment when you slip and the moment when you fall, there is just a fraction of a second when you are, as it were, given the choice. It can either be nothing or something very serious. Only to make the choice you must have a perfectly awakened consciousness and your being must be constantly in contact with the psychic. There is no time to bring in the contact, one must already be in contact. So, just between the slip and the fall, if the mental and psychic formation is sufficient, you come out unscathed. If, on the contrary, the body thinks, as it is its habit, Oh, I have slipped and becomes apprehensiveit is, as I say, a matter of a fraction of a second, even less then the catastrophe happens. You have the capacity to prevent an accident happening, you are given the choice at a momentary moment. But for that you must learn to be wide awake, to be fully conscious. When you are in that condition you can prevent an accident, you can stop an illness coming into you. But it is just the matter of a split second and you must not miss it.

07.17 - Why Do We Forget Things?, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   There are many reasons, of course. First and the most important is that we use the faculty of memory in order to remember. Memory is a mental instrument depending upon the formation and growth of the brain. Your brain is developing constantly unless, of course, it is already degenerating; the development can continue for a long time, longer than that of the body. In the process there are necessarily things replaced by others; and as the instrument grows, elements that were useful in one state are no longer so in a subsequent state and have to give place to others more suitable. The net result of our acquisitions remains there in essence, but all that had led to it, the intermediary steps are suppressed. Indeed, a good memory means nothing more than that that is to say, to remember the results only, so that the fundamentals are sifted and stored, namely, those alone that are useful for further construction. This is more important than just trying to retain some particular items in a rigid manner.
   There is another thing. Apart from the fact that memory by itself in its very nature is a defective organ, there is the other fact that I there are different states of consciousness one following another. Each state faithfully records the phenomena of that moment, whatever they may be. Now, if your mind is calm and clear, wide and strong, you can by concentrating your consciousness on that moment bring out of it and recall in your present active state what is recorded there of your movements then; you can, that is to say, go back to the particular state of consciousness at a given moment and live it again. What is registered in your consciousness is never obliterated and hence not really forgotten. You can live a thousand years and you will not have forgotten that. Therefore, if you do not want to forget a thing, you must retain it through your consciousness, and not through your mental memory. As I have said, the mental memory fades away, new things, things of today replace old things, things of yesterday. But that of which you are conscious in your conscious-ness, you can never forget. It lies somewhere in the background, returns to you at your bidding. You have only to withdraw to that state of the consciousness where it lies imbedded. In this way you can recall things that you knew perhaps centuries ago. It is how you remember your past lives. For, a movement of consciousness never dies out, it is only the impressions on the surface brain-mind that are fugitive. What you have learnt with this superficial instrument laboriouslyonly read, heard, noted, underlinedleaves no lasting mark, but what is imbibed, breathed in into the stuff of consciousness remains. The brain is being constantly renewed and reformed. Old cells, cells that have become weak and atrophied are replaced by younger and stronger ones or the old cells combine differently or enter into other organisations. Thus the old impressions or memories they carried are obliterated.

07.38 - Past Lives and the Psychic Being, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Most people are not at all conscious of what is happening in them. Their consciousness or being is a mixture of mental, vital and physical elements, a kind of hotchpotch. There are a few, very few indeed, who are consciousconscious of what is beyond the three, viz, their psychic being. For it is only that element which endures, persists through successive lives. Certain people have known or learnt some rudiments of the matterwho believe in rebirth, but conceive it in the most childish manner. Their idea is as if the person changed his body like a robe. There are persons even who have written books describing seriously all the lives they had passed through since the time they were monkeys! As I have said, it is the psychic element alone that persists after death, all the rest gets dissolved. And in 999 cases out of 1,000, the psychic is a very small formation lying behind and taking little part in the actual life of the person. I speak of the average man, not of the Yogi, that is to say, one who has a developed psychic being to the extent that it is capable of controlling and guiding the outer life. How often does an ordinary man get in contact with his psychic being? Years and years pass for many or most to have just a passing taste of this movement. It is this moment that abides and is carried over to the next life, all other things are simply effaced. At a given point of our life, there comes a special circumstance, there is a call within, an absolute inner necessity that brings forward the psychic and the contact is made perhaps for an instant. That experience is preserved in the psychic memory. More than the outer circumstances and the physical events, however, what is cherished in the consciousness is the intimate emotion, the vibration that accompanied the perception at the time. At the most, a word said, a phrase heard, just a passing scene is all that is stored, net and clear, engraved as it were. But above all it is the soul's state that is the most important thing. I t is these scattered elements that serve as stepping-stones or sign-posts on the soul's forward journey. They are the constants that build up the personality of a man. On rare occasions there is a larger clearing, the circumstances preserved are sufficiently definite to point to a date and a historical person. Usually, however, one cannot say, I was such a person, I lived in such a country or did such things. These psychic flashes, more in some cases, less in others, are the only genuine and au thentic records of the story of a person's lives.
   It is a being who is completely identified with his psychic, who has organised his whole person, in all its parts, around this centre, in fact, a being of one piece, entirely and solely turned to the Divine that can alone remember or hold in his consciousness something like a totality of his personal history. For in his case even when the body drops, the other parts being integrated and taken up into the soul substance maintain their individual existence; the personality formed around the psychic continues to exist with its memory intact: even it can pass from one life to another without losing the consciousness.

07.43 - Music Its Origin and Nature, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Music, you must remember, like any other art, is a means for expressing somethingsome idea, some feeling, some emotion, a certain aspiration and so on. There is even a domain where all these movements exist and from where they are brought down under a musical form. A good composer with some inspiration would produce good music; he is then called a good musician. A bad musician can have also a good inspiration, he can receive something from the higher domain, but possessing no musical capacity, he would produce only what is very commonplace, very ordinary and uninteresting. However, if you go beyond, precisely over to this place where lies the origin of music, get to the idea, the emotion, the inspiration behind, you can then taste of these things without being held back by the form. Still this musical form can be joined on to what is behind or beyond the form; for it is that which originally inspired the musician to compose. Of course, there are instances where no inspiration exists, where the source is only a kind of sound mechanics, which is not, in any case, always interesting. What I mean is this that there is an inner state in which the outer form is not the most important thing: there lies the origin of music, the inspiration that is beyond. It is trite to say, but one often forgets that it is not sound that makes music, the sound has to express something.
   There is a music that is quite mechanical and has no inspiration. There are musicians who play with great virtuosity, that is to say, they have mastered the technique and execute faultlessly the most complicated and rapid movements. It is music perhaps, but it expresses nothing; it is like a machine. It is clever, there is much skill, but it is uninteresting, soulless. the most important thing, not only in music, but in all human creations, in all that man does even, is, I repeat, the inspiration behind. The execution naturally is expected to be on a par with the inspiration; but to express truly well, one must have truly great things to express. It is not to say that technique is not necessary; on the contrary, one must possess a very good technique; it is even indispensable. Only it is not the one thing indispensable, not is it as important as the inspiration. For the essential quality of music comes from the region where it has its source.
   Source or origin means the thing without which an object would not exist. Nothing can manifest upon earth physically unless it has its source in a higher truth. Thus material existence has its source and inspiration in the vital, the vital in its turn has behind it the mental, the mental has the overmental and so on. If the universe were a flat object, having its origin in itself, it would quickly cease to exist. (That is perhaps what Science means when it postulates the impossibility of perpetual motion). It is because there is a higher source which inspires it, a secret energy that drives it towards manifestation that Life continues: otherwise it would exhaust itself very soon.

08.26 - Faith and Progress, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   the most important condition is trust, a childlike trust, the candid feeling that knows that needed things will come, that there is no question about it. When the child has need of anything, he is certain that it is coming. This kind of simple trust or reliance is the most important condition.
   One must aspire, it is indispensable; but there are people who aspire and yet with so much conflict within them, between faith and want of faith, trust and distrust, between optimism that is sure of victory and pessimism that is just waiting for the catastrophe to come etc., etc. If such is the state of your being, you may aspire but nothing will come out of it. You say, "I aspire and I get nothing"; that is because you are demolishing your aspiration all the while by your want of trust. But if truly you have the trust, things would be different. Children, for example, when they are left to themselves, when they have not been deformed by elderly people, have a great confidence that everything will be all right. When they have an accident they never think that it will be anything serious. They have the spontaneous conviction that it will be set right soon and that helps things to get right soon. When you aspire for the Force, ask for the Divine's help, if you do it with an unshakable certitude that the thing will come, in that case, it is impossible for it not to come. In fact, as I say, such a conviction is in itself an inner opening. There are people who are naturally and automatically in this condition. Whenever or wherever there occurs an opportunity to receive something from above they are there present. And there are others who always fail to be on the spot when there is an occasion for the descent: they close themselves at the right moment. But they who have the childlike reliance they never miss an opportunity. It is a very curious phenomenon. Apparently there may not be much difference between the two types. Both may have the same goodwill, the same aspiration, the same desire to do one's best, but he who has a happy confidence in him, who does not question, who does not ask if he will have the thing or not, whether the Divine will answer or notfor, to him that is not the question, it is understood and taken for granted: "The thing I need I shall be given," he says, "if I pray my prayer will be granted, in am in difficulty and I ask for help, the help will come, it will not only come but settle everything"I say, the person who has such a spontaneous, candid, unquestioning reliance gets the best conditions under which an effective descent can take place; its action then is marvellous.

08.34 - To Melt into the Divine, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   We must begin by understanding what the thing really means. There are many stages or steps in it. First of all, you must distinguish between two things (1) selfishness and (2) egoism. Selfishness is a crude form and it should not be very difficult to get rid of it, at least a good part of it. You can get over it simply by having a sense of the ridiculous. You do not see how absurd a selfish man is. He always thinks of himself, bringing everything round to himself, ruled by considerations of his small person, putting himself at the centre of the universe and trying to organise the universe, including God, around himself, as if he was the most important item of the universe. Now, if you just try to look at yourself from outside in a dispassionate way, see yourself as in a mirror, you immediately recognise how ridiculous your little person is. I remember I read in French, translated of course, a line from Tagore which amused me very much. It was about a little dog. The dog was seated in the lap of its mistress and considered itself to be the centre of the universe. Yes, the picture stuck in my mind. I knew actually a little dog who was like that. There are many of the kind, perhaps all: they want that everybody should be busy with them and they succeed in doing so.
   You have to go a long way before you can think of merging your ego, your self in the Divine. First of all, you cannot merge your ego or your self until you are a completely individualised being. And do you know what does that mean'to be completely individualised'? It means one capable of resisting all external influences. The other day I received a letter from someone who says that he hesitates to read books; for he has a very strong tendency to identify himself with what he reads; if he reads a novel or a drama he becomes the character pictured and is possessed by the feelings and thoughts and movements of the character. There are many like that. If they read something, while they read they are completely moved by the ideas and impulsions and even ideals they read about and are totally absorbed in them and become them, without their knowing it even. That is because ninety-nine per cent of their nature is made of butter as it were: if you press your finger it leaves a mark. That is the ordinary man's character. One takes in, as one comes across it, a thought experienced by another, a phrase read in a book, a thing observed or an incident the eyes fall upon, a will or wish of a neighbour, all that enters pell-mell intermixed enters and goes out, others come inlike electric currents. And one does not notice it. There is a conflict, a clash among these various movements, each trying to get the upper hand. Thus the person is tossed to and fro like a piece of cork upon the waves in the sea.
  --
   One needs years of labourorganising, selecting, building up very diligently, very carefully, very rationally, very cohesively, in order simply to form oneself: to form this simple thing, for example, to think in one's own way. You believe you think in your own way, you do not know how much you depend for your thoughts upon the people you speak to, upon the books that you read, upon your varying moods; yes, it depends not unoften upon your good or bad digestion, upon the fact of your being closed in a room or free in the open air, upon the scenery around you, upon sun or shower. You do not notice it, but you think of different things in different ways according to conditions or situations which have nothing to do with your own self. So, I say, to have your thoughts coordinated, cohesive, logical, you would need a long, very long work in minute details. And then, that is the most important part of the thing, when you have come to a beautiful mental structure, well-shaped, very strong, very powerful, the first thing you will be told to do is that you must break it up, if you wish to be united with the Divine! And unless and until you have done that first part you cannot do the second part, unless you form yourself you cannot give yourself, you would have nothing to give to the Divine. You are nothing more than a mass of inchoate things which are not yourself. First you must exist, you must be, before you can give yourself.
   At the present moment in the actual state of things what one can give to the Divine is one's body. But that is precisely the thing that one does not give. Yes, try to consecrate your work, your bodily labour; even there, there are so many things that are not true or correct.

09.18 - The Mother on Herself, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   There is a vast difference between what you know of yourself and what I know of you. What I know of you is evidently what you ought to become. Your external being one can see well. But between that and the inner being that I see there is the vital mental region which is the most important thing from the human point of view; for what one has to become must be repeated there first, if it is to be materialised. But as I say, the gap is wide between what you know of yourself, what is actively conscious in you and what you are in the truth of your being. This intermediary region is somewhat difficult for me to be familiar with or comprehend: for it is a cloudy region for me, a domain of falsehood. You must note the distinction between a lie and a falsehood. A lie is that which is altogether unreal, which has not been, which is not there. A falsehood is that which is not true, in the sense that it is not the expression of your truthnot at alland yet, it is that of which you are mostly externally conscious. Very very few are there who have the inner perception of what they want to become, what they want to do, what the truth of their being is. There are not many of that kind. For some, the thing comes and is then veiledjust a lightning flash for a moment and then all is dark. For me it is a perpetual question to know what is the state of the superficial consciousness which is for me so unreal, so untrue.
   There is such a contradiction between the brutal fact of the daily activity and this image I make to myself of what each one of you should be: I keep this image always intact with all the power of my consciousness so that you may realise it. That is yourself, your own self. It is not this ignorant, stupid, insincere, dishonest being that you call yourself.

1.00c - DIVISION C - THE ETHERIC BODY AND PRANA, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
  As the nature and functions of the etheric body of man assume their rightful place in the thought of the world and as it is realised that the etheric is the most important of the two physical bodies, man will be brought into closer conscious contact with the other evolutions [90] that evolve in etheric matter just as he does in a dense physical body. There are certain large groups of devas, called "the devas of the shadows," or the violet devas, who are closely allied with the evolutionary development of man's etheric body, and who transmit to him solar and planetary radiation. The etheric body of man receives prana in different ways and of different kinds, and all these ways bring him into touch with varying entities.
  1. Solar prana.
  --
  This fourth earth chain is in this connection one of the most important, for it is the appointed place for the domination of the etheric body by the human monad, with the aim in view of both human and planetary escape from limitations. This earth chain, though not one of the seven sacred planetary chains, is of vital importance at this time to the planetary Logos, who temporarily employs it as a medium of incarnation, and of expression. This fourth round finds the solution of its strenuous and chaotic life in the very simple fact of the shattering of [115] the etheric web in order to effect liberation, and permit a later and more adequate form to be employed.
  A further chain of ideas may be followed up in the remembrance that the fourth ether is even now being studied and developed by the average scientist, and is already somewhat harnessed to the service of man; that the fourth subplane of the astral plane is the normal functioning ground of the average man and that in this round escape from the etheric vehicle is being achieved; that the fourth subplane of the mental plane is the present goal of endeavor of one-fourth of the human family; that the fourth manvantara will see the solar ring-pass-not offering avenues of escape to those who have reached the necessary point; that the four planetary Logoi will perfect Their escape from Their planetary environment, and will function with greater ease on the cosmic astral plane, paralleling on cosmic levels the achievement of the human units who are the cells in Their bodies.

1.00e - DIVISION E - MOTION ON THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL PLANES, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
  2. That situated at the solar plexus, the most important one in the body from the standpoint of the astral plane.
  3. That found at the throat, the most important from the standpoint of the mental plane.
  4. That in the region of the heart, which has an occult link with the buddhic plane.

1.00 - PREFACE, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  we are led to the most important discovery of all times, to the threshold of the Great Secret that is to change the face of this world,
  namely, that consciousness is power. Hypnotized as we are by the "inescapable" scientific conditions of the present world, we have come to believe that our hope lies in an ever greater proliferation of machines, which will see better than we do, hear better than we do,

1.01 - Economy, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
  As with our colleges, so with a hundred modern improvements; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks nearer to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill.
  One says to me, I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg to-day and see the country. But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, Suppose we try who will get there first. The distance is thirty miles; the fare ninety cents. That is almost a days wages. I remember when wages were sixty cents a day for laborers on this very road. Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the mean while have earned your fare, and arrive there some time to-morrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working here the greater part of the day. And so, if the railroad reached round the world, I think that I should keep ahead of you; and as for seeing the country and getting experience of that kind, I should have to cut your acquaintance altogether.

1.01 - Necessity for knowledge of the whole human being for a genuine education., #The Essentials of Education, #unset, #Zen
  In our adult interactions, we use our knowledge of other people so unconsciously that we are unaware of it, but we nevertheless act according to it. In our capacity as teachers, however, the relationship between our human soul as teacher and the childs human soul must be much more conscious, so that we have a formative effect on the child. But we also must become aware of our own teachers soul so that we experience whats necessary to establish the right mood, the right teaching artistry, and the right empathy with the childs soul. All of these things are necessary to perform our educa- tional and teaching task adequately. Were immediately reminded that the most important aspect in education and teaching is what occurs between the teachers soul and the childs soul.
  Lets start with this knowledge of human nature; its knowl- edge with soft edges. It lacks sharp contours to the extent that its not related to any one person. Rather, over the course of the educational relationship it hovers, as it were, weaving here and there between what happens in the teachers soul and in the childs soul. In certain ways, its difficult to be sure of whats happening, since its all very subtle. When we teach, something is present that flows like a stream, constantly changing. Its necessary to develop an eye, an inner faculty that can grasp the fleeting, subtle influ- ences that pass from soul to soul. Only then, perhaps; only when we have the ability to comprehend the intimate, spiritual inter- play between two human beings, are we able to understand each individual.
  --
  When we understand the interrelationship between teacher and child in terms of the temperaments, we see that, during this first stage of life, what we have learned has almost no importance for teaching and educating a child. the most important considerations have to do with the kind of person you are, what impressions the child receives, and whether or not youre worthy of imitation.14
  As far as this life period is concerned, if a civilization never spoke of education and in its elementary, primitive way simply educated, it would have a much healthier outlook than ours. This was true of the ancient Eastern regions, which had no educa- tion in our sense of the word. There the adults body, soul, and spirit was allowed to affect the child so that the child could take this adult as a guide, moving a muscle when the teacher moved a muscle and blinking when the teacher blinked. The teacher was trained to do this in a way that enabled the child to imitate. Such a teacher was not as the Western pedagogue, but the Eastern data. 3 A certain instinctive quality was behind this. Even today, its obvious that what Ive learned is totally irrelevant in terms of my ability to teach a child effectively before the change of teeth. After the change of teeth, the teachers knowledge begins to have some significance; but this is lost again, if I merely impart what I learned as it lives in me. It all has to be transformed artistically and made into images, as we shall see later. I have to awaken invis- ible forces between the child and myself.
  --
  For the small child before the change of teeth, the most impor- tant thing in education is the teachers own individuality. the most important element for teaching the child between the change of teeth and puberty is the teacher who can enter living artistry. Only after the age of fourteen or fifteen can the child really claim what the teacher has learned. This continues until after the early twenties, when the child is fully grown (even though its true that we call the teenager a young lady or young man). At twenty years, the young person can meet another human being on equal terms, even when the other is older.
  Things like this enable us to look deep into human nature and we shall see how this is deepened in the presence of true human wisdom. We come to realize contrary to what has often been thought that we dont recognize someone as a teacher by examining what the person knows after going through college. That would show us only a capacity for lecturing on some sub- ject, perhaps something suitable for students between fourteen and twenty. As far as earlier stages are concerned, what the teacher does in this sense has no relevance whatever. The qualities neces- sary for these early periods need to be assessed on a very different basis.

1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  In the present section we shall confine our attention to but a single feature of this traditional psychology the most important, the most emphatically insisted upon by all exponents of the Perennial Philosophy and, we may add, the least psychological. For the doctrine that is to be illustrated in this section belongs to autology rather than psychologyto the science, not of the personal ego, but of that eternal Self in the depth of particular, individualized selves, and identical with, or at least akin to, the divine Ground. Based upon the direct experience of those who have fulfilled the necessary conditions of such knowledge, this teaching is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, tat tvam asi (That art thou); the Atman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of every human being is to discover the fact for himself, to find out Who he really is.
  The more God is in all things, the more He is outside them. The more He is within, the more without.

1.01 - The True Aim of Life, #Words Of The Mother II, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Consider the Divine Life as the most important thing to obtain.
  Happiness is not the aim of life.

1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  constitute an important perhaps the most important subset of the broader class of stimuli of
  indeterminate meaning. Something unexpected, or novel, necessarily occurs in relationship to what is
  --
  goal (which is to say, after getting to specific point b has been deemed the most important possible
  activity, at this time and in this place). Something normally novel constitutes an occurrence which leaves
  --
  and perhaps the most important, single factor. It is more a style or melody of adaptation that characterizes
  the individual human being. This style is adaptation for exploration of the unknown, within a social context
  --
  Thou art the most important among the great gods,
  Thy destiny is unequaled, thy comm and is like that of Anu.
  Marduk, thou art the most important among the great gods.
  Thy destiny is unequaled, thy comm and is like that of Anu.
  --
  of Nisan. It comprised several sequences, of which we will mention the most important: (1) a day of
  expiation for the king, corresponding to Marduks captivity; (2) the freeing of Marduk; (3) ritual
  --
  The central myth of Indra, which is, furthermore, the most important myth in the Rig Veda, narrates his
  victorious battle against Vrtra, the gigantic dragon who held back the waters in the hollow of the
  --
  Alalu was king, and Anu, the most important of the gods, bowed before him and served him. But after
  nine years Anu attacked and vanquished him. Then Alalu took refuge in the subterranean world, and

1.02 - Meditating on Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  How theyre treating me is not the most important issue. What theyre
  doing is not about me. Its about their pain. Can we look at Osama bin Laden

1.02 - On the Knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
  Know, that God exists exempt from and independent of the notions that enter the mind, and the forms that are produced in the imagination, that he is not subjected to reasoning, and time and place cannot be ascribed to him. Still his exercise of power and the manifestation of his glory are not independent of place. But in the same manner, this independence and freedom is possible in your soul. The spirit, for example, which we call heart is exempt from the entrance of fancies and imaginations, and also from size and divisibility. Nor has it form or color, for if it had, it could be seen by the eye, and would enter into the sphere of fancy and imagination, and its beauty or ugliness, its greatness or littleness would be known. If any one ask you about your soul, you may answer, "It exists by the will of God: it has neither quantity or physical quality; it is exempt from being known." Beloved, since you are incapable of knowing the spirit which is in your body, how should it be possible for you to know God, who created spirits, bodies and all things, who is himself foreign to all of them, and who is not of their class and kind ? It is one of the most important things, yea, a most necessary duty, to treat of God as holy, independent and free.
  How many things there are in your body in reference to which you do not know their reality and essence, such as [46] desire, love, misery and pleasure. Their existence is admitted, but their quantity and quality cannot be measured. If you desire to learn the absolute truth about them, you cherish a vain longing; and it is the same, if you desire to know the absolute nature of voice, nutrition or hearing. As that which is perceived by the eye has no relation to voice, and as that which is perceived by the ear has no relation to form, and as that which is perceived by the sense of smelling has no relation to taste, so that the one can be known by means of the other, in the same manner that which is perceived through the medium of the mind or of divine power, cannot be perceived by the senses. Again, as the spirit exists and controls the body, and yet we know not the mode and essence of it, so God is present in all things, and controls and governs all things, but his form, essence and quality are exempt from being known. Exemption and freedom may be illustrated in still another manner. In the same way that the spirit pervades all the limbs and the body, and the body is entirely subject to its control, and that the spirit is indivisible, while the body is divisible, so also in relation to God, all that exists, springs from him, all creatures exist by his word, and in all possible things his operations are seen, yet still he is not related to place, nor does he reason about anything, and he is free from relation or affinity to any quality of bodies or to quantity.

1.02 - The Eternal Law, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
  What seems to a Westerner to be the most important part of a religion (namely, the structure that distinguishes it from all other religions,
  insisting that a person is not a Catholic or a Protestant unless he or she thinks this way or that way and subscribes to this or that articles of faith) is in fact the least important aspect for an Indian, who instinctively seeks to remove external differences in order to find everyone at the central point where all communicates.

1.02 - The Magic Circle, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
  All authors of books dealing with ceremonial magic and giving reports about conjuration and invocation of beings of any kind point out that the magic circle plays the most important role in this. Hundreds of instructions can be found on how to make magic circles to attain various goals, for instance with Albertus Magnus, in the Clavicula Salomonis, in the Goethia, in Agrippa, in Magia Naturalis, in the Faust-Magia-Naturalis and in the oldest Grimoires. It is told everywhere that when invoking or calling a being, one must stand within the magic circle. But an explanation of the esoteric symbolism of the magic circle is hardly ever given.
  Therefore I intend to give the studious and eager magician a completely satisfactory description of the magic circle according the Universal Laws and Analogies.

1.02 - THE NATURE OF THE GROUND, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  Such, very baldly and briefly, are the most important things we know about mind in regard to its capacity to influence matter. From this modest knowledge about ourselves, what are we entitled to conclude in regard to the divine object of our nearly total ignorance?
  First, as to creation: if a human mind can directly influence matter not merely within, but even outside its body, then a divine mind, immanent in the universe or transcendent to it, may be presumed to be capable of imposing forms upon a pre-existing chaos of formless matter, or even, perhaps, of thinking substance as well as forms into existence.

1.02 - What is Psycho therapy?, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  all possibility of doubt that the most important aetiological processes in
  neurosis are essentially unconscious; while practical experience has shown

1.031 - Intense Aspiration, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  So, this intensity of asking, the profundity of the soul's aspiration for the object that is being sought, mentioned in this sutra of Patanjali, tvra savegnm sanna, is the crux of the whole matter. We are also told that mumukshutva is the most important qualification of a spiritual seeker. All other things, even viveka, vairagya, shatsampat, come afterwards. Mumukshutva intense longing swallows up every other thing. What qualification did the gopis have? They were not qualified MA's, graduates from Oxford. They had no viveka or vairagya in the sense that we describe academically, in philosophical parlance. We should not even apply these technical aspects to them. It was simply a surge of their souls. They wanted it and wanted nothing else, and there ended the matter. "You don't tell me anything else. I want it, I want it, and I don't want anything else." This kind of aspiration was in their hearts, and we should not bring any other argument here either philosophical, or academic, or logical, or scientific. We do not want to hear anything else. When these arguments were brought in an academic manner by Uddhava, they said, "You bundle up your knowledge and go from here. We want Him, that is all, and we do not want to hear anything else." This wanting is something which is inscrutable, though it is very easily said.
  Well, we may say, "If it is such a simple matter, then this is what we want and we won't want anything else." But, my dear friends, this wanting is almost everything; there is nothing which it does not include because this tivra samvegatva this wanting, this intensity of asking is of a very strange character. We have never been accustomed to this kind of wanting in this world. We cannot want even our father and mother with the intensity that is expected here. What is the dearest object in this world? Perhaps it is our parents; we cannot think of a dearer thing than father and mother, for instance. We cannot like even them so much, unless certain conditions are fulfilled. Even our love for parents is conditional; unconditioned love is impossible. Certain conditions must be fulfilled only then we love. Otherwise we say, "Good bye, I don't want to look at you." But here it is not like that; this is unconditioned asking. It is not limited by space, time, causality, or any kind of qualification from outside. Whatever may happen, and whatever be the difficulties on the way - whatever be the obstacles and whatever be the temptations we shall not yield to any of these but move straight towards the objective that is before us.

1.03 - Concerning the Archetypes, with Special Reference to the Anima Concept, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  albeit the most important one in practice and the commonest.
  It has numerous connections with other pairs which do not dis-
  --
  32 the most important problems for therapy are discussed in my essay "The Rela-
  tions between the Ego and the Unconscious" and also in the "Psychology of the

1.03 - Eternal Presence, #Words Of The Mother I, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  You can say that all through history Sri Aurobindo played an active part. Especially in the most important movements of history he was there and playing the most important, the leading part. But he was not always visible.
  23 January 1960

1.03 - Preparing for the Miraculous, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
  One of the most important events in the Mothers
  Yoga of those years took place on 3 April 1962, after sev-

1.03 - THE GRAND OPTION, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  haps even the most important part, of the life of the spirit. A geo-
  metrical system is made up of points, lines and diagrams, but in

1.04 - Of other imperfections which these beginners are apt to have with respect to the third sin, which is luxury., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
  MANY of these beginners have many other imperfections than those which I am describing with respect to each of the deadly sins, but these I set aside, in order to avoid prolixity, touching upon a few of the most important, which are, as it were, the origin and cause of the rest. And thus, with respect to this sin of luxury (leaving apart the falling of spiritual persons into this sin, since my intent is to treat of the imperfections which have to be purged by the dark night), they have many imperfections which might be described as spiritual luxury, not because they are so, but because the imperfections proceed from spiritual things. For it often comes to pass that, in their very spiritual exercises, when they are powerless to prevent it, there arise and assert themselves in the sensual part of the soul impure acts and motions, and sometimes this happens even when the spirit is deep in prayer, or engaged in the Sacrament of Penance or in the Eucharist. These things are not, as I say, in their power; they proceed from one of three causes.
  31 [The agnusdei was a wax medal with a representation of the lamb stamped upon it, often blessed by the Pope; at the time of the Saint such medals were greatly sought after, as we know from various references in St. Teresa's letters.]

1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  taken for a mere indisposition is in fact the most important thing on earth to him, is in fact death.
  This is exactly what happened to me. I realized that this was not an incidental ailment but something

1.04 - The Divine Mother - This Is She, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
  It was a challenging problem suddenly thrown upon her by Nature. Our Ashram life also took a different turn; the old barriers completely broke down under this influx. No longer a hermitage of peace, silence and inner expansion and acquisition, it had to be tested in the crucible of outer life. We soon became one spiritual family. The Mother had to look after the mental, vital and physical health of the green ones, both boys and girls. Along with the necessity, means also came forward to meet the demand. Sisirkumar Mitra from Vishwabharati, with a long teaching experience, and Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya from Calcutta, an expert in physical culture, came and were given charge of the two wings of education, mental and physical. Particularly in young Pranab, the Mother found an excellent instrument for physical culture and with his help she quickly built up the centre of physical education. I don't need to discuss the place and raison d'etre of physical education in our Ashram life when Sri Aurobindo has done it so well in his essay on The Divine Body.[6] My vision being more earthly, I can see that it has served the most important purpose of keeping the inflammable material of young boys, girls and children under a strict supervision through compulsory activities from 4.30 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. or so. One can very well imagine what would have been the moral effect on them, had there not been this central control, especially when the children here are given a great freedom of movement. Those young people who have cut themselves off from these collective activities suffer much from psychological troubles. Most of the ills of the youth outside have their origin in having no occupation after college and school hours. After Sri Aurobindo's passing, the Mother gave me one sound counsel, "Be in the atmosphere," by which she meant that I should not isolate myself from the collective activities. When there was a demand for more holidays, the Mother remarked, "I have started the School so that the children may not knock about in the streets." Since then, Sisirkumar has resisted the pressure of the students for more holidays.
  The Mother now began to identify herself more and more with this new generation. In the evening when Sri Aurobindo was enjoying his solitude, the Mother, after her tennis, busied herself in the Playground meeting the children, watching their games and exercises, taking classes, etc. and through all these means, establishing an intimate contact with them. The exercises were done in cumbersome pyjamas which consequently checked free movement. One evening when I went to visit the Playground, I found the gate closed. The gate-keeper told me that the Mother did not want anyone except the group-members to enter the Playground. When it was thrown open we found, to our surprise, that the girls were doing exercises in shorts! How did this revolutionary change come about? Here, in brief, is the story from one who played an active part in it. One day, one of the girls, doing her exercises in pyjamas in the Playground, fell down and got hurt owing to the impractical dress. When the Mother was told about it, she listened quietly. After a couple of days, she called Bratati, one of the sadhikas of her intimate circle (she had such small intimate groups of young boys, girls and adults) and said, "I have solved the problem of the uniform. The girls will put on white shorts, a white shirt and a kitty-cap on the head for their hair. Prepare them and try them on yourself. Pyjamas are unwieldy. When you are ready, let me know about it." When everything was ready, she informed the Mother and a day was fixed for the rehearsal in strict privacy. The Mother was pleased with the design. Calling the girls together she gave a short impressive talk on the new experiment and the necessity for trying it. They at once fell in with the proposal and adopted the new uniform. But what was the reaction to this drastic step? Some, particularly old people, were shocked to see their daughters scantily dressed and doing exercises jointly with boys; a few conservative guardians were planning to take their wards away from such a modernised Ashram. I, personally, admired, on the one hand, the revolutionary step taken by the Mother far in advance of the time in Eastern countries, in anticipation of the modern movement in dress; on the other hand, my cautious mind, or as Sri Aurobindo would say, my coward-mind, could not but feel the risk involved in this forward venture. At the same time I knew that the Mother's very nature is to face danger, if necessary. And whenever we had tried to argue with her that we were doing things which were not done outside, she replied sharply, "Why should we follow the others? They have no ideas, we have ideas. I have come to break down old conventions and superstitions." Besides, whatever measures she adopts are not done for the sake of novelty or from mental reasons. "Mother is guided by her intuition," Sri Aurobindo reminded us very often. Also, I believe, she prepares the ground in the occult planes and manipulates the forces to her advantage before she takes any hazardous step. That is why we hear her say, "Wait, wait!" for the opportune moment, I suppose. We can realise now the wisdom of her vision in taking that revolutionary step. Further, I think it was one of the most effective means to eliminate sex-consciousness between the male and the female. We are in this respect much better than before now that shorts have become almost our normal dress.

1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There are here a number of words whose exact meaning is exceedingly important for any fruitful enquiry into the religious significance of the Vedas. the most important, the decisive & capital word in the passage is Ritam. Whatever it may be held to mean, it will decide for us the essential character of Varuna & his constant comradeMitra. I have already suggested in my first chapter the sense in which I understand Ritam. It is its ordinary sense in Sanscrit. Ritam is Truth, Law, that which is straight, upright, direct, rectum; it is that which gives everything its place & its motion (ritu), that which constitutes reason (ratio) in mind and rectitude in morals,it is the rightness or righteousness which makes the stars move in their orbits, the seasons occur in their order, thought & speech move towards truth, trees grow according to their seed, animals act according to their species & nature, & man walk in the paths which God has prescribed for him. It is that in the Akasha the Akasha where Varuna is lordwhich develops arrangement & order, it is the element of law in Nature. But not only in material Nature, not only in the moral akasha even,the akasha of the heart of which the Rishis spoke, but on higher levels also. I have pointed out that Ritam is the law of the Truth, of vijnana. It is this ideal Truth, the Truth of being, by which everything animate or inanimate knows in its fibres of being & serves in action & feeling the truth of itself, in which Law is born. This Law which belongs to Satyam, to the Mahas, is Ritam. Neither of the English words,Law & Truth, gives the idea; they have to be combined in order to be equivalent to ritam. Well, then Varuna is represented to us as increasing in his nature by this Truth & Law, attaining to it or possessing it; Law & Truth are the source of his strength, the means by which he has arrived at his present force & mightiness.
  But he is more than that; he is tuvijata, urukshaya. Uru, we shall find in other hymns, the Vast, is a word used as equivalent to Brihat to describe the ideal level of consciousness, the kingdom of ideal knowledge, in its aspect of joyous comprehensive wideness and capacity. It is clearly told us that men by overcoming & passing beyond the two firmaments of Mind-invitality, Bhuvar, & mind in intellectuality, Swar, arrive in the Vast, Uru, and make it their dwelling place. Therefore Uru must be taken as equivalent to Brihat; it must mean Mahas. Our Vedic Varuna, then, is a dweller in Mahas, in the vastness of ideal knowledge. But he is not born there; he is born or appears first in tuvi, that is, in strength or force. Since Uru definitely means the Vast, means Mahas, means a particular plane of consciousness, is, in short, a fixed term of Vedic psychology, it is inevitable that tuvi thus coupled with it and yet differentiated, must be another fixed term of Vedic psychology & must mean another plane of consciousness. We have found the meaning of Mahas by consulting Purana & Vedanta as well as the Veda itself. Have we any similar light on the significance of Tuvi? Yes. The Puranas describe to us three worlds above Maharloka,called, respectively, in the Puranic system, Jana, Tapas and Satya. By a comparison with Vedantic psychology we know that Jana must be the world of Ananda of which the Mahajana Atma is the sustaining Brahman as the Mahan Atma is the sustaining Brahman of the vijnana, and we get this light on the subject that, just as Bhur, Bhuvah, Swar are the lower or human half of existence, the aparardha of the Brahmanda, (the Brahma-circle or universe of manifest consciousness), and answer objectively to the subjective field covered by Annam, Prana & Manas, just as Mahas is the intermediate world, link between the divine & human hemispheres, and corresponds to the subjective region of Vijnana, so Jana, Tapas & Satya are the divine half of existence, & answer to the Ananda with its two companion principles Sat andChit, the three constituting the Trinity of those psychological states which are, to & in our consciousness, Sacchidananda,God sustaining from above His worlds. But why is the world of Chit called Tapoloka? According to our conceptions this universe has been created by & in divine Awareness by Force, Shakti, or Power which [is] inherent in Awareness, Force of Awareness or Chit Shakti that moves, forms & realises whatever it wills in Being. This force, this Chit-shakti in its application to its work, is termed in the ancient phraseology Tapas. Therefore, it is told us that when Brahma the Creator lay uncreative on the great Ocean, he listened & heard a voice crying over the waters OM Tapas! OM Tapas! and he became full of the energy of the mantra & arose & began creation. Tapas & Tu or Tuvi are equivalent terms. We can see at once the meaning. Varuna, existing no doubt in Sat, appears or is born to us in Tapas, in the sea of force put out in itself by the divine Awareness, & descending through divine delight which world is in Jana, in production or birth by Tapas, through Ananda, that is to say, into the manifest world, dwells in ideal knowledge & Truth and makes there Ritam or the Law of the Truth of Being his peculiar province. It is the very process of all creation, according to our Vedic&Vedantic Rishis. Descending into the actual universe we find Varuna master of the Akash or ether, matrix and continent of created things, in the Akash watching over the development of the created world & its peoples according to the line already fixed by ideal knowledge as suitable to their nature and purposeya thatathyato vihitam shashwatibhyah samabhyah and guiding the motion of things & souls in the line of theritam. It is in his act of guidance and bringing to perfection of the imperfect that he increases by the law and the truth, desires it and naturally attains to it, has the spriha & the sparsha of the ritam. It is from his fidelity to ideal Truth that he acquires the mighty power by which he maintains the heavens and orders its worlds in their appointed motion.

1.04 - The Paths, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  Wisdom, of which the ten Sephiros are considered to be the main Paths or branches whose correspondences are by far the most important, and the twenty-two letters the lesser
  Paths connecting the Sephiros, harmonizing and equili- brizing the concepts attached to the various numbers. In dealing with these remaining twenty-two Paths, the same procedure will be followed as with the Sephiros, going over each item, giving several correspondences, paying particular attention to the shape and meaning of the letters, together

1.04 - Yoga and Human Evolution, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  But it is not only through the intellect that man rises. If the clarified intellect is not supported by purified emotions, the intellect tends to be dominated once more by the body and to put itself at its service and the lordship of the body over the whole man becomes more dangerous than in the natural state because the innocence of the natural state is lost. The power of knowledge is placed at the disposal of the senses, sattva serves tamas, the god in us becomes the slave of the brute. The disservice which scientific Materialism is unintentionally doing the world is to encourage a return to this condition; the suddenly awakened masses of men, unaccustomed to deal intellectually with ideas, able to grasp the broad attractive innovations of free thought but unable to appreciate its delicate reservations, verge towards that reeling back into the beast, that relapse into barbarism which was the condition of the Roman Empire at a high stage of material civilisation and intellectual culture and which a distinguished British statesman declared the other day to be the condition to which all Europe approached. The development of the emotions is therefore the first condition of a sound human evolution. Unless the feelings tend away from the body and the love of others takes increasingly the place of the brute love of self, there can be no progress upward. The organisation of human society tends to develop the altruistic element in man which makes for life and battles with and conquers aany mtyu. It is therefore not the struggle for life, or at least not the struggle for our own life, but the struggle for the life of others which is the most important term in evolution,for our children, for our family, for our class, for our community, for our race and nation, for humanity. An ever-enlarging self takes the place of the old narrow self which is confined to our individual mind and body, and it is this moral growth which society helps and organises.
  So far there is little essential difference between our own ideas of human progress and those of the West except in this vital point that the West believes this evolution to be a development of matter and the satisfaction of the reason, the reflective and observing intellect, to be the highest term of our progress. Here it is that our religion parts company with Science. It declares the evolution to be a conquest of matter by the recovery of the deeper emotional and intellectual self which was involved in the body and over-clouded by the desires of the pra. In the language of the Upanishads the manakoa and the buddhikoa are more than the prakoa and annakoa and it is to them that man rises in his evolution. Religion farther seeks a higher term for our evolution than the purified emotions or the clarified activity of the observing and reflecting intellect. The highest term of evolution is the spirit in which knowledge, love and action, the threefold dharma of humanity, find their fulfilment and end. This is the tman in the nandakoa, and it is by communion and identity of this individual self with the universal self which is God that man will become entirely pure, entirely strong, entirely wise and entirely blissful, and the evolution will be fulfilled. The conquest of the body and the vital self by the purification of the emotions and the clarification of the intellect was the principal work of the past. The purification has been done by morality and religion, the clarification by science and philosophy, art, literature and social and political life being the chief media in which these uplifting forces have worked. The conquest of the emotions and the intellect by the spirit is the work of the future. Yoga is the means by which that conquest becomes possible.

1.05 - Mental Education, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  And yet control over this formative activity of the mind is one of the most important aspects of self-education; one can say that without it no mental mastery is possible. As far as study is concerned, all ideas are acceptable and should be included in the synthesis, whose very function is to become more and more rich and complex; but where action is concerned, it is just the opposite. The ideas that are accepted for translation into action should be strictly controlled and only those that agree with the general trend of the central idea forming the basis of the mental synthesis should be permitted to express themselves in action. This means that every thought entering the mental consciousness should be set before the central idea; if it finds a logical place among the thoughts already grouped, it will be admitted into the synthesis; if not, it will be rejected so that it can have no influence on the action. This work of mental purification should be done very regularly in order to secure a complete control over one's actions.
  For this purpose, it is good to set apart some time every day when one can quietly go over one's thoughts and put one's synthesis in order. Once the habit is acquired, you can maintain control over your thoughts even during work and action, allowing only those which are useful for what you are doing to come to the surface. Particularly, if you have continued to cultivate the power of concentration and attention, only the thoughts that are needed will be allowed to enter the active external consciousness and they then become all the more dynamic and effective. And if, in the intensity of concentration, it becomes necessary not to think at all, all mental vibration can be stilled and an almost total silence secured. In this silence one can gradually open to the higher regions of the mind and learn to record the inspirations that come from there.

1.05 - Problems of Modern Psycho therapy, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  angle, but it is not always the most important. We can give a starving man
  a beautiful painting; he would much prefer bread. We can nominate a

1.05 - Solitude, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
  Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain storms in the spring or fall, which confined me to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed by their ceaseless roar and pelting; when an early twilight ushered in a long evening in which many thoughts had time to take root and unfold themselves. In those driving north-east rains which tried the village houses so, when the maids stood ready with mop and pail in front entries to keep the deluge out, I sat behind my door in my little house, which was all entry, and thoroughly enjoyed its protection. In one heavy thunder shower the lightning struck a large pitch-pine across the pond, making a very conspicuous and perfectly regular spiral groove from top to bottom, an inch or more deep, and four or five inches wide, as you would groove a walking-stick. I passed it again the other day, and was struck with awe on looking up and beholding that mark, now more distinct than ever, where a terrific and resistless bolt came down out of the harmless sky eight years ago. Men frequently say to me, I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially. I am tempted to reply to such,This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way? This which you put seems to me not to be the most important question. What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary? I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another. What do we want most to dwell near to? Not to many men surely, the depot, the post-office, the bar-room, the meeting-house, the school-house, the grocery, Beacon Hill, or the Five
  Points, where men most congregate, but to the perennial source of our life, whence in all our experience we have found that to issue, as the willow stands near the water and sends out its roots in that direction.

1.05 - Some Results of Initiation, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
   it. the most important of these currents flow to the lotus flowers. They permeate each petal and regulate its revolutions; then streaming out at the points of the petals, they lose themselves in outer space. The higher the development of a person, the greater the circumference to which these rays extend.
  The twelve-petalled lotus flower has a particularly close connection with this central organ. The currents flow directly into it and through it, proceeding on the one side to the sixteen and the two-petalled lotus flowers, and on the other, the lower side, to the flowers of eight, six and four petals. It is for this reason that the very greatest care must be devoted to the development of the twelve-petalled lotus, for an imperfection in the latter would result in irregular formation of the whole structure. The above will give an idea of the delicate and intimate nature of esoteric training, and of the accuracy needed if the development is to be regular and correct. It will also be evident beyond doubt that directions for the development of supersensible faculties can only be the concern of those who have themselves experienced everything which they propose to

1.05 - The Activation of Human Energy, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  One of the most important aspects of hominization, from the
  point of view of the history of life, is the accession of biolo-

1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  devil. For instance he is dragon, lion, eagle, raven to mention only the most important of them. In the
  alchemical hierarchy of gods Mercurius comes lowest as prima materia and highest as lapis

1.06 - Magicians as Kings, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
  California "the shaman was, and still is, perhaps the most important
  individual among the Maidu. In the absence of any definite system of

1.06 - Psychic Education, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  "The first and perhaps the most important point is that the mind is incapable of judging spiritual things. All those who have written on this subject have said so; but very few are those who have put it into practice. And yet, in order to proceed on the path, it is absolutely indispensable to abstain from all mental opinion and reaction.
  "Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.

1.06 - The Sign of the Fishes, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  two great planets, he says, are also the most important for the
  destiny of the world, and especially for the destiny of the Jews.

1.06 - The Three Schools of Magick 1, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  We must quote a passage from one of the most important of these documents. The doctrine is conveyed, as is customary among Initiates, in the form of a parable. Those who have attained even a mediocre degree of enlightenment are aware that the crude belief of the faithful, and the crude infidelity of the scoffer, with regard to matters of fact, are merely childish. Every incident in Nature, true or false, possesses a spiritual significance. It is this significance, and only this significance, that possesses any philosophical value to the Initiate.
  The orthodox need not be shocked, and the enlightened need not be contemptuous, to learn that the passage which we are about to quote, is a parable based on the least decorous of the Biblical legends which refer to Noah.[7] It simply captures for its own purposes the convenience of Scripture.

1.06 - Wealth and Government, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  It is only by the growth and establishment of the consciousness of human unity, that a true and lasting peace can be achieved upon earth. All means leading towards this goal are welcome, although the external ones have a very limited effect; however, the most important, urgent and indispensable of all, is a transformation of the human consciousness itself, an enlightenment of and conversion in its working.
  Meanwhile some exterior steps may be taken usefully, and the acceptance of the principle of double nationality is one of them. The main objection to it has always been the awkward position in which those who have adopted a double nationality would be in case the two countries were at war.

1.07 - A Song of Longing for Tara, the Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  of it. But neither of these is the most important aspect for us sentient
  beings. A Buddhas speech is most crucial for us, because the Buddha leads

1.07 - Incarnate Human Gods, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
  head of the most important monasteries. When one of these Grand
  Lamas dies his disciples do not sorrow, for they know that he will

1.07 - On Our Knowledge of General Principles, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
  In addition to the logical principles which enable us to prove from a given premiss that something is _certainly_ true, there are other logical principles which enable us to prove, from a given premiss, that there is a greater or less probability that something is true. An example of such principles--perhaps the most important example is the inductive principle, which we considered in the preceding chapter.
  One of the great historic controversies in philosophy is the controversy between the two schools called respectively 'empiricists' and
  --
  British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume--maintained that all our knowledge is derived from experience; the rationalists--who are represented by the Continental philosophers of the seventeenth century, especially Descartes and Leibniz--maintained that, in addition to what we know by experience, there are certain 'innate ideas' and 'innate principles', which we know independently of experience. It has now become possible to decide with some confidence as to the truth or falsehood of these opposing schools. It must be admitted, for the reasons already stated, that logical principles are known to us, and cannot be themselves proved by experience, since all proof presupposes them. In this, therefore, which was the most important point of the controversy, the rationalists were in the right.
  On the other hand, even that part of our knowledge which is _logically_ independent of experience (in the sense that experience cannot prove it) is yet elicited and caused by experience. It is on occasion of particular experiences that we become aware of the general laws which their connexions exemplify. It would certainly be absurd to suppose that there are innate principles in the sense that babies are born with a knowledge of everything which men know and which cannot be deduced from what is experienced. For this reason, the word 'innate' would not now be employed to describe our knowledge of logical principles. The phrase
  --
  _A priori_ knowledge is not all of the logical kind we have been hitherto considering. Perhaps the most important example of non-logical
  _a priori_ knowledge is knowledge as to ethical value. I am not speaking of judgements as to what is useful or as to what is virtuous, for such judgements do require empirical premisses; I am speaking of judgements as to the intrinsic desirability of things. If something is useful, it must be useful because it secures some end; the end must, if we have gone far enough, be valuable on its own account, and not merely because it is useful for some further end. Thus all judgements as to what is useful depend upon judgements as to what has value on its own account.

1.07 - Past, Present and Future, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  To do yoga, one of the most important things to achieve is to get rid of all attachment to the past.
  Let the past be past and concentrate only on the progress you want to make and the surrender to the Divine you have to achieve.
  --
  The present is the most important moment in life.
  12 February 1952
  What is the most important moment in life? The present moment. For the past no longer exists and the future does not yet exist.
  1952

1.07 - The Continuity of Consciousness, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
  Now, when these experiences during deep sleep first come to the notice of the student, his next task must be to sense them as clearly and vividly as possible. At first this presents great difficulty, the perception of these experiences being exceedingly slight. The student knows very well, on waking, that he has had an experience, but is completely in the dark as regards its nature. the most important thing during this initial stage is to remain quiet and composed, and not for a moment lapse into any unrest or impatience. The latter is under all circumstances detrimental; it can never accelerate development, but only delays it. The student must cultivate a quiet and yielding receptivity for the gift that is presented to him; all violence must be repressed. Should he at any period not become aware of experiences during
   p. 208

1.07 - The Ego and the Dualities, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  3:At first, however, we must strive to relate the individual again to the harmony of the totality. There it is necessary for us - otherwise there is no issue from the problem - to realise that the terms in which our present consciousness renders the values of the universe, though practically justified for the purposes of human experience and progress, are not the sole terms in which it is possible to render them and may not be the complete, the right, the ultimate formulas. Just as there may be sense-organs or formations of sense-capacity which see the physical world differently and it may well be better, because more completely, than our sense-organs and sense-capacity, so there may be other mental and supramental envisagings of the universe which surpass our own. States of consciousness there are in which Death is only a change in immortal Life, pain a violent backwash of the waters of universal delight, limitation a turning of the Infinite upon itself, evil a circling of the good around its own perfection; and this not in abstract conception only, but in actual vision and in constant and substantial experience. To arrive at such states of consciousness may, for the individual, be one of the most important and indispensable steps of his progress towards self-perfection.
  4:Certainly, the practical values given us by our senses and by the dualistic sense-mind must hold good in their field and be accepted as the standard for ordinary life-experience until a larger harmony is ready into which they can enter and transform themselves without losing hold of the realities which they represent. To enlarge the sense-faculties without the knowledge that would give the old sense-values their right interpretation from the new standpoint might lead to serious disorders and incapacities, might unfit for practical life and for the orderly and disciplined use of the reason. Equally, an enlargement of our mental consciousness out of the experience of the egoistic dualities into an unregulated unity with some form of total consciousness might easily bring about a confusion and incapacity for the active life of humanity in the established order of the world's relativities. This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life-basis and thought-basis of the ignorant; for, impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.

1.07 - The Magic Wand, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
  The shape and the size of the wand plays a minor part. the most important thing about a magic wand is its charging for practical use, a description of which is given below.
  The charge of a magic wand is done in much the same way as the charge of a magic mirror provided with a fluid condenser for special purposes. There are many ways of charge for a wand.

1.08 - Psycho therapy Today, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  drastic measures at all those moments in life when psychic transitions haveto be effected. the most important of these are the initiations at puberty
  and the rites pertaining to marriage, birth, and death. All these ceremonies,

1.08 - The Four Austerities and the Four Liberations, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  A physical culture which aims at building a body capable of serving as a fit instrument for a higher consciousness demands very austere habits: a great regularity in sleep, food, exercise and every activity. By a scrupulous study of ones own bodily needs for they vary with each individuala general programme will be established; and once this has been done well, it must be followed rigorously, without any fantasy or slackness. There must be no little exceptions to the rule that are indulged in just for once but which are repeated very often for as soon as one yields to temptation, even just for once, one lessens the resistance of the will-power and opens the door to every failure. One must therefore forgo all weakness: no more nightly escapades from which one comes back exhausted, no more feasting and carousing which upset the normal functioning of the stomach, no more distractions, amusements and pleasures that only waste energy and leave one without the strength to do the daily practice. One must submit to the austerity of a sensible and regular life, concentrating all ones physical attention on building a body that comes as close to perfection as possible. To reach this ideal goal, one must strictly shun all excess and every vice, great or small; one must deny oneself the use of such slow poisons as tobacco, alcohol, etc., which men have a habit of developing into indispensable needs that gradually destroy the will and the memory. The all-absorbing interest which nearly all human beings, even the most intellectual, have in food, its preparation and its consumption, should be replaced by an almost chemical knowledge of the needs of the body and a very scientific austerity in satisfying them. Another austerity must be added to that of food, the austerity of sleep. It does not consist in going without sleep but in knowing how to sleep. Sleep must not be a fall into unconsciousness which makes the body heavy instead of refreshing it. Eating with moderation and abstaining from all excess greatly reduces the need to spend many hours in sleep; however, the quality of sleep is much more important than its quantity. In order to have a truly effective rest and relaxation during sleep, it is good as a rule to drink something before going to bed, a cup of milk or soup or fruit-juice, for instance. Light food brings a quiet sleep. One should, however, abstain from all copious meals, for then the sleep becomes agitated and is disturbed by nightmares, or else is dense, heavy and dulling. But the most important thing of all is to make the mind clear, to quieten the emotions and calm the effervescence of desires and the preoccupations which accompany them. If before retiring to bed one has talked a lot or had a lively discussion, if one has read an exciting or intensely interesting book, one should rest a little without sleeping in order to quieten the mental activity, so that the brain does not engage in disorderly movements while the other parts of the body alone are asleep. Those who practise meditation will do well to concentrate for a few minutes on a lofty and restful idea, in an aspiration towards a higher and vaster consciousness. Their sleep will benefit greatly from this and they will largely be spared the risk of falling into unconsciousness while they sleep.
  After the austerity of a night spent wholly in resting in a calm and peaceful sleep comes the austerity of a day which is sensibly organised; its activities will be divided between the progressive and skilfully graded exercises required for the culture of the body, and work of some kind or other. For both can and ought to form part of the physical tapasya. With regard to exercises, each one will choose the ones best suited to his body and, if possible, take guidance from an expert on the subject, who knows how to combine and grade the exercises to obtain a maximum effect. Neither the choice nor the execution of these exercises should be governed by fancy. One must not do this or that because it seems easier or more amusing; there should be no change of training until the instructor considers it necessary. The self-perfection or even simply the self-improvement of each individual body is a problem to be solved, and its solution demands much patience, perseverance and regularity. In spite of what many people think, the athletes life is not a life of amusement or distraction; on the contrary, it is a life of methodical efforts and austere habits, which leave no room for useless fancies that go against the result one wants to achieve.

1.08 - The Historical Significance of the Fish, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  role. 50 the most important is the Jewish material collected by
  Scheftelowitz. The Jewish "chalice of benediction" 51 was some-

1.09 - Equality and the Annihilation of Ego, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  11:Before this labour for the annihilation of desire and the conquest of the soul's equality can come to its absolute perfection and fruition, that turn of the spiritual movement must have been completed which leads to the abolition of the sense of ego. But for the worker the renunciation of the egoism of action is the most important element in this change. For even when by giving up the fruits and the desire of the fruits to the Master of the Sacrifice we have parted with the egoism of rajasic desire, we may still have kept the egoism of the worker. Still we are subject to the sense that we are ourselves the doer of the act, ourselves its source and ourselves the giver of the sanction. It is still the "I" that chooses and determines, it is still the "I" that undertakes the responsibility and feels the demerit or the merit.
  12:An entire removal of this separative ego-sense is an essential aim of our Yoga. If any ego is to remain in us for a while, it is only a form of it which knows itself to be a form and is ready to disappear as soon as a true centre of consciousness is manifested or built in us. That true centre is a luminous formulation of the one Consciousness and a pure channel and instrument of the one Existence. A support for the individual manifestation and action of the universal Force, it gradually reveals behind it the true Person in us, the central eternal being, an everlasting being of the Supreme, a power and portion of the transcendent Shakti.2

1.09 - Fundamental Questions of Psycho therapy, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  connected with the unconscious. the most important of these are the ESP
  phenomena, which medical psychology should on no account ignore. If

1.09 - Man - About the Body, #Initiation Into Hermetics, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
  Herewith the chapter dealing with the body is finished. I do not assert that all has been regarded, but in any case, with respect to the elements, I mean to say, the four-pole magnet, I have treated the most important problems and revealed the secret of the Tetragrammaton in view of the body.

1.09 - Stead and Maskelyne, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  In judging the evidence, we must attach especial importance to the opinion of men who have dealt with the facts at first hand. Recently, two such men have put succinctly their arguments for and against the truth of spiritualism, Mr. W. T. Stead and the famous conjurer, Mr. Maskelyne. We will deal with Mr. Maskelyne first, who totally denies the value of the facts on which spiritualism is based. Mr. Maskelyne puts forward two absolutely inconsistent theories, first, that spiritualism is all fraud and humbug, the second, that it is all subconscious mentality. The first was the theory which has hitherto been held by the opponents of the new phenomena, the second the theory to which they are being driven by an accumulation of indisputable evidence. Mr. Maskelyne, himself a professed master of jugglery and illusion, is naturally disposed to put down all mediums as irregular competitors in his own art; but the fact that a conjuror can produce an illusory phenomenon, is no proof that all phenomena are conjuring. He farther argues that no spiritualistic phenomena have been produced when he could persuade Mr. Stead to adopt conditions which precluded fraud. We must know Mr. Maskelynes conditions and have Mr. Steads corroboration of this statement before we can be sure of the value we must attach to this kind of refutation. In any case we have the indisputable fact that Mr Stead himself has been the medium in some of the most important and best ascertained of the phenomena. Mr. Maskelyne knows that Mr. Stead is an honourable man incapable of a huge and impudent fabrication of this kind and he is therefore compelled to fall back on the wholly unproved theory of the subconscious mind. His arguments do not strike us as very convincing. Because we often write without noticing what we are writing, mechanically, therefore, says this profound thinker, automatic writing must be the same kind of mental process. The one little objection to this sublimely felicitous argument is that automatic writing has no resemblance whatever to mechanical writing. When a an writes mechanically, he does not notice what he is writing; when he writes automatically, he notices it carefully and has his whole attention fixed on it. When he writes mechanically, his hand records something that it is in his mind to write; when he writes automatically, his hand transcribes something which it is not in his mind to write and which is often the reverse of what his mind would tell him to write. Mr. Maskelyne farther gives the instance of a lady writing a letter and unconsciously putting an old address which, when afterwards questioned, she could not remember. This amounts to no more than a fit of absent-mindedness in which an old forgotten fact rose to the surface of the mind and by the revival of old habit was reproduced on the paper, but again sank out of immediate consciousness as soon as the mind returned to the present. This is a mental phenomenon essentially of the same class as our continuing unintentionally to write the date of the last year even in this years letters. In one case it is the revival, in the other the persistence of an old habit. What has this to do with the phenomena of automatic writing which are of an entirely different class and not attended by absent-mindedness at all? Mr. Maskelyne makes no attempt to explain the writing of facts in their nature unknowable to the medium, or of repeated predictions of the future, which are common in automatic communications.
  On the other side Mr. Steads arguments are hardly more convincing. He bases his belief, first, on the nature of the communications from his son and others in which he could not be deceived by his own mind and, secondly, on the fact that not only statements of the past, but predictions of the future occur freely. The first argument is of no value unless we know the nature of the communication and the possibility or impossibility of the facts stated having been previously known to Mr. Stead. The second is also not conclusive in itself. There are some predictions which a keen mind can make by inference or guess, but, if we notice the hits and forget the misses, we shall believe them to be prophecies and not ordinary previsions. The real value of Mr. Steads defence of the phenomena lies in the remarkable concrete instance he gives of a prediction from which this possibility is entirely excluded. The spirit of Julia, he states, predicted the death within the year of an acquaintance who, within the time stated, suffered from two illnesses, in one of which the doctors despaired of her recovery. On each occasion the predicting spirit was naturally asked whether the illness was not to end in the death predicted, and on each she gave an unexpected negative answer and finally predicted a death by other than natural means. As a matter of fact, the lady in question, before the year was out, leaped out of a window and was killed. This remarkable prophecy was obviously neither a successful inference nor a fortunate guess, nor even a surprising coincidence. It is a convincing and indisputable prophecy. Its appearance in the automatic writing can only be explained either by the assumption that Mr. Stead has a subliminal self, calling itself Julia, gifted with an absolute and exact power of prophecy denied to the man as we know him,a violent, bizarre and unproved assumption,or by the admission that there was a communicant with superior powers to ordinary humanity using the hand of the writer. Who that was, Julia or another, ghost, spirit or other being, is a question that lies beyond. This controversy, with the worthlessness of the arguments on either side and the supreme worth of the one concrete and precise fact given, is a signal proof of our contention that, in deciding this question, it is not a priori arguments, but facts used for their evidential value as an impartial lawyer would use them, that will eventually prevail.

1.1.05 - The Siddhis, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Siddhis, but recognised them as a part, though not the most important part of Yogic accomplishment, and used them with an abundant and unhesitating vigour. They are recognised in our sacred books, formally included in Yoga by so devotional a Purana as the Bhagawat, noted and some of their processes carefully tabled by Patanjali. Even in the midnight of the Kali great Siddhas and saints have used them more sparingly, but with power and effectiveness. It would be difficult for many of them to do otherwise than use the siddhis since by the very fact of their spiritual elevation, these powers have become not exceptional movements, but the ordinary processes of their thought and action. It is by the use of the siddhis that the Siddhas sitting on the mountains help the world out of the heart of their solitude and silence. Jesus Christ made the use of the siddhis a prominent feature of his pure, noble and spiritual life, nor did he hesitate to communicate them to his disciples - the laying of hands, the healing of the sick, the ashirvada, the abhishap, the speaking with many tongues were all given to them. The day of Pentecost is still kept holy by the Christian Church. Joan of Arc used her siddhis to liberate France. Socrates had his siddhis, some of them of a very material nature. Men of great genius are usually born with some of them and use them unconsciously. Even in natures far below the power and clarity of genius we see their occasional or irregular operation. The West, always avid of knowledge, is struggling, sadly hampered by misuse and imposture, to develop them and gropes roughly for the truth about them in the phenomena of hypnotism, clairvoyance, telepathy, vouched for by men and women of great intellectuality and sincerity. Returning
  Eastwards, where only their right practice has been understood, the lives of our saints northern and southern are full of the record of Siddhis. Sri Ramakrishna, whose authority is quoted against

1.10 - ALICE'S EVIDENCE, #Alice in Wonderland, #Lewis Carroll, #Fiction
  "That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet," said the
  King.

1.10 - The Image of the Oceans and the Rivers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  "by the greatness of Saraswati". The gods act, it is continually stated, by the power of the Truth, r.tena, but Saraswati is only one of the deities of the Truth and not even the most important or universal of them. The sense I have given is, therefore, the only rendering consistent with the general thought of the Veda and with the use of the phrase in other passages.
  Let us then start from this decisive fact put beyond doubt by this passage - whether we take the great stream to be Saraswati itself or the Truth-ocean - that the Vedic Rishis used the image of water, a river or an ocean, in a figurative sense and as a psychological symbol, and let us see how far it takes us. We notice first that existence itself is constantly spoken of in the

1.1.2 - Commentary, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  their meeting-place, equalises them and is the most important
  agent in maintaining the equilibrium of the vital forces and their

1.12 - The Herds of the Dawn, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The image of the Cow is the most important of all the Vedic symbols. For the ritualist the word go means simply a physical cow and nothing else, just as its companion word, asva, means simply a physical horse and has no other sense, or as ghr.ta means only water or clarified butter, vra only a son or a retainer or servant. When the Rishi prays to the Dawn, gomad vravad dhehi ratnam us.o asvavat, the ritualistic commentator sees in the invocation only an entreaty for "pleasant wealth to which are attached cows, men (or sons) and horses". If on the other
  124

1.12 - Truth and Knowledge, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
  The third of the above requisites leads us to adopt the view--which has on the whole been commonest among philosophers--that truth consists in some form of correspondence between belief and fact. It is, however, by no means an easy matter to discover a form of correspondence to which there are no irrefutable objections. By this partly--and partly by the feeling that, if truth consists in a correspondence of thought with something outside thought, thought can never know when truth has been attained--many philosophers have been led to try to find some definition of truth which shall not consist in relation to something wholly outside belief. the most important attempt at a definition of this sort is the theory that truth consists in _coherence_. It is said that the mark of falsehood is failure to cohere in the body of our beliefs, and that it is the essence of a truth to form part of the completely rounded system which is The Truth.
  There is, however, a great difficulty in this view, or rather two great difficulties. The first is that there is no reason to suppose that only _one_ coherent body of beliefs is possible. It may be that, with sufficient imagination, a novelist might invent a past for the world that would perfectly fit on to what we know, and yet be quite different from the real past. In more scientific matters, it is certain that there are often two or more hypotheses which account for all the known facts on some subject, and although, in such cases, men of science endeavour to find facts which will rule out all the hypotheses except one, there is no reason why they should always succeed.

1.13 - Gnostic Symbols of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  and Buddha), to name only the most important of the motifs
  here used.

1.14 - The Book of Magic Formulae, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
  In all works that have so far been written on ritual magic, the Magic Book, the Book of Magic Formulae, i. e. the book that contains the incantations for the beings or spirits to be conjured or evoked has been regarded as the most important part of the magic of evocation, but its contents have so often been misinterpreted that we will do well to try to get a clear picture of it from the hermetic point of view.
  It is quite wrong to believe that all that has to be done is to buy a book and write into it the magic charms and incantations of evocation or that it will suffice if these formulae are learned by heart and in consequence the desired being evoked. The grimoires which we have so far been able to examine, no matter whether they were old or modern ones, all contain the same mistake as far as the interpretation of the book of formulae is concerned. True initiates cannot help laughing at these mystifications though feeling sorry for the people who, by such misinterpretation, will get no positive results. Looking at it from one point of view it is correct to write about magic formulae in a mysterious way, and not give away their secrets too easily, in order to avoid profanation.

1.14 - The Suprarational Beauty, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  We see this in the history of the development of literary and artistic criticism. In its earliest stages the appreciation of beauty is instinctive, natural, inborn, a response of the aesthetic sensitiveness of the soul which does not attempt to give any account of itself to the thinking intelligence. When the rational intelligence applies itself to this task, it is not satisfied with recording faithfully the nature of the response and the thing it has felt, but it attempts to analyse, to lay down what is necessary in order to create a just aesthetic gratification, it prepares a grammar of technique, an artistic law and canon of construction, a sort of mechanical rule of process for the creation of beauty, a fixed code or Shastra. This brings in the long reign of academic criticism superficial, technical, artificial, governed by the false idea that technique, of which alone critical reason can give an entirely adequate account, is the most important part of creation and that to every art there can correspond an exhaustive science which will tell us how the thing is done and give us the whole secret and process of its doing. A time comes when the creator of beauty revolts and declares the charter of his own freedom, generally in the shape of a new law or principle of creation, and this freedom once vindicated begins to widen itself and to carry with it the critical reason out of all its familiar bounds. A more developed appreciation emerges which begins to seek for new principles of criticism, to search for the soul of the work itself and explain the form in relation to the soul or to study the creator himself or the spirit, nature and ideas of the age he lived in and so to arrive at a right understanding of his work. The intellect has begun to see that its highest business is not to lay down laws for the creator of beauty, but to help us to understand himself and his work, not only its form and elements but the mind from which it sprang and the impressions its effects create in the mind that receives. Here criticism is on its right road, but on a road to a consummation in which the rational understanding is overpassed and a higher faculty opens, suprarational in its origin and nature.
  For the conscious appreciation of beauty reaches its height of enlightenment and enjoyment not by analysis of the beauty enjoyed or even by a right and intelligent understanding of it,these things are only a preliminary clarifying of our first unenlightened sense of the beautiful,but by an exaltation of the soul in which it opens itself entirely to the light and power and joy of the creation. The soul of beauty in us identifies itself with the soul of beauty in the thing created and feels in appreciation the same divine intoxication and uplifting which the artist felt in creation. Criticism reaches its highest point when it becomes the record, account, right description of this response; it must become itself inspired, intuitive, revealing. In other words, the action of the intuitive mind must complete the action of the rational intelligence and it may even wholly replace it and do more powerfully the peculiar and proper work of the intellect itself; it may explain more intimately to us the secret of the form, the strands of the process, the inner cause, essence, mechanism of the defects and limitations of the work as well as of its qualities. For the intuitive intelligence when it has been sufficiently trained and developed, can take up always the work of the intellect and do it with a power and light and insight greater and surer than the power and light of the intellectual judgment in its widest scope. There is an intuitive discrimination which is more keen and precise in its sight than the reasoning intelligence.

1.15 - In the Domain of the Spirit Beings, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
  This has been a rough sketch of the most important aspects of the astral sphere of the so-called earth-zone or zone girdling the earth, which is the zone next to our physical world. The earthzone is, according to human thinking, not the most condensed form of sphere in spite of its being placed above us, since in it there exist the most various intensities of light, or vibration, in accordance with the degree of maturity of each individual human being. This earth-zone is by no means bordered in any way; it stretches out over the cosmos, not only over the ball of the earth.
  The laws ruling this zone have nothing to do with the idea of space, however, as they go for the whole microcosm and macrocosm and their analogous connection. This is the reason why man can only reach his perfection, his ultimate magical maturity, and his genuine connection with the deity, in this zone girdling the earth. This clearly shows that, from the point of view of magic, the earth-zone is the lowest sphere, but at the same time also the sphere with the highest emanation of the Divine Princi86 p Ie. I shall show further that there exist further spheres belonging to this hierarchy which the magician is able to contact, but he is able to live in the earth-zone also as a being of perfection, as the true image of God. In this zone girdling the earth the whole creation from the highest perfection of the deity down to the lowest and roughest form is manifested. A human being may get into contact with all kinds of spheres which lie above the earth-zone, but he cannot become their constant inhabitant, because the earth-zone is the reflecting mirror of the whole creation. It is the manifested world of all degrees of condensation. The old Quabbalists knew this truth and therefore called the earth-zone

1.15 - Sex Morality, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  But there is another point at issue. This incidentally, is where the "automatic safeguards" come in. "...thou hast no right but to do thy will." (AL I, 42) means that to "go anwhoring after strange" purposes can only be disastrous. It is possible, in chemistry, to provoke an endothermic reaction; but that is only asking for trouble. The product bears within its own heart the seed of dissolution. Accordingly, the most important preliminary to any Magical operation is to make sure that its object is not only harmonious with, but necessary to, your Great Work.
  Note also that the use of this supreme method involves the manipulation of energies ineffably secret and most delicately sensitive; it compares with the operations of ordinary Magick as the last word in artillery does with the blunderbuss!

1.15 - THE DIRECTIONS AND CONDITIONS OF THE FUTURE, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  c Finally Conditions of Synthesis, the most important of all. What
  does the term mean? Cosmically speaking, as I have said, Man is

1.16 - Advantages and Disadvantages of Evocational Magic, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
  After having sealed the contract or pact the sorcerer cannot do any work for weeks or months. During this time he is taught by his head various practices and is initiated into the use of his powers. The sealing of such a pact is actually not much different from what is stated in the grimoires or magic books. There is, however, a little difference hardly known to anybody: the pact itself is not compiled by the spirit being, but is, in fact, drawn up and written by the sorcerer himself, like the book of charms. The text of the pact is written down in ordinary ink. Special ink, however, may be used for this purpose, depending on the rituals applied, but this is not so important. The contract clearly states what services have to be rendered by the being which wishes it will fulfill, which possibilities are given the sorcerer with this pact, including other conditions which must be fulfilled by the being on behalf of the sorcerer. On another page of the contract the duties are laid down which, on the one hand, the sorcerer must carry out for the being and which, on the other hand, the being orders itself to carry out. It further states in which manner the head can be called and whether it has to appear visibly or invisibly; how servants, put at the sorcerer's disposal, have to be treated, etc. the most important point is the period for which the contract is valid and that after the expiration date of the contract the sorcerer is obliged to travel to the sphere of the demon. Also the way in which the sorcerer will die in the physical world and how he will move over into the sphere of the head is fixed by contract. All points and conditioned are agreed to by both parties, and the being usually signs the contract by its own seal, using the sorcerer's hand as a medium, and the mutual agreement is countersigned. It is also quite possible that the being asks for, or insists on, the sorcerer's signing the contract with his own blood.
  But contracts have been made, and are still being made, without such a condition. Usually the contract is written in duplicate; one copy remains in the sorcerer's hands, the other is for the being. It is stated in the books that the being takes both copies, but this is done rarely and only happens with a certain category of beings.

1.17 - Astral Journey Example, How to do it, How to Verify your Experience, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  This, from a practical point of view, is one of the most important verses in the book.
  The unusual word "unassuaged" is very interesting. People generally suppose that "will" is the slave of purpose, that you cannot will a thing properly unless you are aiming at a definite goal. But this is not the case. Thinking of the goal actually serves to distract the mind. In these few words is included the whole method without all the bombastic piety of the servile doctrine of mysticism about the surrender of the Will. Nor is this idea of surrender actually correct; the will must be identified with the Divine Will, so-called. One wants to become like a mighty flowing river, which is not consciously aiming at the sea, and is certainly not yielding to any external influence. It is acting in conformity with the law of its own nature, with the Tao. One can describe it, if necessary, as "passive love"; but it is love (in effect) raised to its highest potential. We come back to the same thing: when passion is purged of any "lust of result" it is irresistible; it has become "Law." I can never understand why it is that mystics fail to see that their smarmy doctrine of surrender actually insists upon the duality which they have set out to abolish!

1.17 - Religion as the Law of Life, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  In spirituality, then, understood in this sense, we must seek for the directing light and the harmonising law, and in religion only in proportion as it identifies itself with this spirituality. So long as it falls short of this, it is one human activity and power among others, and, even if it be considered the most important and the most powerful, it cannot wholly guide the others. If it seeks always to fix them into the limits of a creed, an unchangeable law, a particular system, it must be prepared to see them revolting from its control; for although they may accept this impress for a time and greatly profit by it, in the end they must move by the law of their being towards a freer activity and an untrammelled movement. Spirituality respects the freedom of the human soul, because it is itself fulfilled by freedom; and the deepest meaning of freedom is the power to expand and grow towards perfection by the law of ones own nature, dharma. This liberty it will give to all the fundamental parts of our being. It will give that freedom to philosophy and science which ancient Indian religion gave,freedom even to deny the spirit, if they will,as a result of which philosophy and science never felt in ancient India any necessity of divorcing themselves from religion, but grew rather into it and under its light. It will give the same freedom to mans seeking for political and social perfection and to all his other powers and aspirations. Only it will be vigilant to illuminate them so that they may grow into the light and law of the spirit, not by suppression and restriction, but by a self-searching, self-controlled expansion and a many-sided finding of their greatest, highest and deepest potentialities. For all these are potentialities of the spirit.
  ***

1.18 - Further rules for the Tragic Poet., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
  Ethical (where the motives are ethical),--such as the Phthiotides and the Peleus. The fourth kind is the Simple , exemplified by the Phorcides, the Prometheus, and scenes laid in Hades. The poet should endeavour, if possible, to combine all poetic elements; or failing that, the greatest number and those the most important; the more so, in face of the cavilling criticism of the day. For whereas there have hitherto been good poets, each in his own branch, the critics now expect one man to surpass all others in their several lines of excellence.
  In speaking of a tragedy as the same or different, the best test to take is the plot. Identity exists where the Complication and Unravelling are the same. Many poets tie the knot well, but unravel it ill. Both arts, however, should always be mastered.

1.201 - Socrates, #Symposium, #Plato, #Philosophy
  That is quite a long story, she said, but I will tell you all the same. When Aphrodite was born,156 all the gods held a feast. One of those present was Poros157 (Resource), whose mother was Metis158 (Cleverness). When the feast was over, Penia (Poverty) came begging, as happens on these occasions, and she stood by the door. Poros got drunk on the nectar in those days wine did not exist and having wandered into the garden of Zeus was overcome with drink and went to sleep. Then Penia, because she herself had no resource, thought of a scheme to have a child by Poros, and accordingly she lay down beside him and became pregnant with a son, Love. Because Love was conceived during Aphrodites birthday feast and also because he is by his daimon (the source of English demon), which can mean a god but often denotes a lesser or local deity. Here Diotima characterises Love as a lesser deity, something between a god and a human. The Greeks of Platos day would usually have thought of Love simply as a god, but not one of the most important, Olympian, deities. See Gods and Love in Glossary of names. daimonios, a man of the spirit, spiritual; see footnote 151 above. techne. 154 cheirourgia. 155 banausos (English banausic).
  Diotima appears to follow the story that Aphrodite was the normally-born child of Zeus and
  --
   offspring which it is fitting for the soul to conceive and bear. What offspring are these? Wisdom189 and the rest of virtue,190 of which the poets are all procreators, as well as those craftsmen who are regarded as innovators. But by far the most important and beautiful expression of this wisdom is the good ordering191 of cities and households; and the names for this kind of wisdom are moderation and justice.
  When someone has been pregnant in soul with these things from youth and is of the right age but unmarried,192 he now feels the desire 209b to give birth and procreate. He too, I think, goes about looking for the beautiful in which to procreate; for he will never procreate in the ugly.

1.2.03 - Purity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The aspiration must be for entire purification, especially (1) purification from sex, so that no sex imaginations may enter and the sex impulse may cease, (2) purification from desires and demands, (3) purification from depression which is the result of disappointed desires. It is the most important for you. Particularly what you must aspire for is peace in all the being, complete equanimity, samata. The feeling that peace is not enough must go. Peace and purity and equanimity once established, all the rest must be the Mother s free gift, not a result of the demand from the being.
  You can mix normally with people keeping as much as possible an inner quietude. In future when the purification is done and a continuous experience possible we can reconsider the matter.

1.20 - The Hound of Heaven, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Angirases or the winning of the highest planes of existence. the most important of these hymns is the Sukta of the Atris we have already had to take note of in our scrutiny of the Navagwa and
  Dashagwa Angirases, V.45. The first three verses summarise the great achievement. "Severing the hill of heaven by the words he found them, yea, the radiant ones of the arriving Dawn went abroad; he uncovered those that were in the pen, Swar rose up; a god opened the human doors. The Sun attained widely to strength and glory; the Mother of the Cows (the Dawn), knowing, came from the wideness; the rivers became rushing floods, floods that cleft (their channel), heaven was made firm like a well-shaped pillar. To this word the contents of the pregnant hill

1.23 - Conditions for the Coming of a Spiritual Age, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  What then will be that state of society, what that readiness of the common mind of man which will be most favourable to this change, so that even if it cannot at once effectuate itself, it may at least make for its ways a more decisive preparation than has been hitherto possible? For that seems the most important element, since it is that, it is the unpreparedness, the unfitness of the society or of the common mind of man which is always the chief stumbling-block. It is the readiness of this common mind which is of the first importance; for even if the condition of society and the principle and rule that govern society are opposed to the spiritual change, even if these belong almost wholly to the vital, to the external, the economic, the mechanical order, as is certainly the way at present with human masses, yet if the common human mind has begun to admit the ideas proper to the higher order that is in the end to be, and the heart of man has begun to be stirred by aspirations born of these ideas, then there is a hope of some advance in the not distant future. And here the first essential sign must be the growth of the subjective idea of life,the idea of the soul, the inner being, its powers, its possibilities, its growth, its expression and the creation of a true, beautiful and helpful environment for it as the one thing of first and last importance. The signals must be there that are precursors of a subjective age in humanitys thought and social endeavour.
  These ideas are likely first to declare their trend in philosophy, in psychological thinking, in the arts, poetry, painting, sculpture, music, in the main idea of ethics, in the application of subjective principles by thinkers to social questions, even perhaps, though this is a perilous effort, to politics and economics, that hard refractory earthy matter which most resists all but a gross utilitarian treatment. There will be new unexpected departures of science or at least of research,since to such a turn in its most fruitful seekings the orthodox still deny the name of science. Discoveries will be made that thin the walls between soul and matter; attempts there will be to extend exact knowledge into the psychological and psychic realms with a realisation of the truth that these have laws of their own which are other than the physical, but not the less laws because they escape the external senses and are infinitely plastic and subtle. There will be a labour of religion to reject its past heavy weight of dead matter and revivify its strength in the fountains of the spirit. These are sure signs, if not of the thing to be, at least of a great possibility of it, of an effort that will surely be made, another endeavour perhaps with a larger sweep and a better equipped intelligence capable not only of feeling but of understanding the Truth that is demanding to be heard. Some such signs we can see at the present time although they are only incipient and sporadic and have not yet gone far enough to warrant a confident certitude. It is only when these groping beginnings have found that for which they are seeking, that it can be successfully applied to the remoulding of the life of man. Till then nothing better is likely to be achieved than an inner preparation and, for the rest, radical or revolutionary experiments of a doubtful kind with the details of the vast and cumbrous machinery under which life now groans and labours.

1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  While speaking of the Brain and the Heart Sri Bhagavan recalled an incident of old days as follows:Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni once argued that the brain was the most important centre and Sri Bhagavan maintained that the Heart was even more so. There were others watching the discourse. A few days after
  Sri Bhagavan received a letter containing a short poem in English on that discourse from a young boy, N. S. Arunachalam, who had not yet matriculated.
  --
  Heart is the most important centre from which vitality and light radiate to the brain, thus enabling it to function. The vasanas are enclosed in the Heart in their subtlest form, later flowing to the brain which reflects them highly magnified corresponding to a cinema-show at every stage. That is how the world is said to be nothing more than a cinema-show.
  Sri Bhagavan also added:- Were the vasanas in the brain instead of in the Heart they must be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations will be at an end. But it is not so. The Self obviously safeguards the vasanas in its closest proximity, i.e. within itself in the
  --
  It is plain in our daily life. Among the lights, sunlight is the most important. Hence they speak of the glory of millions of suns.
  D.: There is light if we press the eyelids with our fingers.

1.31 - Continues the same subject. Explains what is meant by the Prayer of Quiet. Gives several counsels to those who experience it. This chapter is very noteworthy., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
  their whole self is not in what they are doing, but that the most important faculty is absent -namely,
  the will, which I think is united with its God- and that the other faculties are left free to busy

1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  While speaking of the Brain and the Heart Sri Bhagavan recalled an incident of old days as follows:Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni once argued that the brain was the most important centre and Sri Bhagavan maintained that the Heart was even more so. There were others watching the discourse. A few days after
  Sri Bhagavan received a letter containing a short poem in English on that discourse from a young boy, N. S. Arunachalam, who had not yet matriculated.
  --
  Heart is the most important centre from which vitality and light radiate to the brain, thus enabling it to function. The vasanas are enclosed in the Heart in their subtlest form, later flowing to the brain which reflects them highly magnified corresponding to a cinema-show at every stage. That is how the world is said to be nothing more than a cinema-show.
  Sri Bhagavan also added:- Were the vasanas in the brain instead of in the Heart they must be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations will be at an end. But it is not so. The Self obviously safeguards the vasanas in its closest proximity, i.e. within itself in the
  --
  It is plain in our daily life. Among the lights, sunlight is the most important. Hence they speak of the glory of millions of suns.
  D.: There is light if we press the eyelids with our fingers.

14.02 - Occult Experiences, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   These outer personalities there is not one, there are many you consider this body of yours as your only form, but you have many. Each level has its own individual form and a recognisable one. Each one has special eyes, nose, ears, so this inner personality also has recognisable features. If you know, you can even name them it is this person, that person. The subtle physical is more concrete. Only the physical form, the material form does not change much. It changes, yes, according to your age, slowly but for sometime you are the same. These inner forms are changeful; they are not restricted to one rigid figure. Still they are recognisable. There is a plasticity which is very natural; according to the situation, according to your mood, according to your feeling, they change. But the most important, the most original form is your psychic being your true being that which we must strive to realise and attain. As the Mother says: It is the Divine personality in each one of us. Your outer personality is sometimes only a caricature, but still it tries to reflect, though with difficulty, something of the needs and urges of this inmost reality of yours. Someone has asked me: "How to find, how to know this inner being, the true being in me?" For, as the poet here says, he can't touch you and you can't touch him, but what you want is to touch that person. The fact is that it is not so altogether out of contact, not altogether unless a man is a total villain, which is very rare. You can't obliterate that true existence of you, it is there. It expresses itself in all the movements that are good and noble and selfless. Whenever you see something beautiful or do something nice, be sure that it is your psychic being that sees or does it. The psychic being in you is the Mother for it is an emanation of Herself that She has put in you, in order to protect you. When you see the sunset and feel happy, it is the psychic being in you that sees it. It is a small beginning but it is a beginning. Let your psychic being guide your acts. The only thing necessary is to be sincere. You have to be sincere. First day you will find it very difficult, second day you will find it easier, third day it will become still easier and then on the fourth day it will become your nature. It is not easy, but if you try you will be able to do it.
   ***

1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  Two ladies, one Swiss and the other French, visited Maharshi. The younger of the ladies asked several questions, of which the most important was: Brahman is the same as jiva. If the jiva be under illusion it amounts to saying that Brahman is under illusion. How is that possible?
  M.: If Brahman be under illusion and wants disillusionment let Him raise the question.

1.45 - Unserious Conduct of a Pupil, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  If you put half as much enthusiasm into what you quite rightly claim to be the most important factor in life as other old ladies do into Culbertson Contract, you might get somewhere.
  What you need, in the way of a Guru, is some fat, greasy Swami, who would not allow you to enter or leave his presence without permission, or address him without being formally invited to do so. After seven years at menial household drudgeries, you might with luck be allowed to listen to some of his improving discourse.

1.48 - Morals of AL - Hard to Accept, and Why nevertheless we Must Concur, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  P.S. It has seemed better to make a postscript of the most important argument of all; for it is completely separate. It is this.
  The Book's meaning is "...not only in the English..." etc. (AL I, 36; I, 46; I, 54, 55; II, 76; III, 16; III, 39; III, 47; III, 63-68; and III, 73). These passages make it clear that there is a secret interpretation, which, being hidden as it is hidden, is presumably of even graver importance than the text as it stands. Such passages as I have been able to decipher confirm this view; so also does the discovery of the key number 31 by Frater Achad.[93] We must also expect a genius to arise who will accomplish all this work for us. Again we know that much information of the utmost value has been given through the Hebrew, the Greek and very probably the Arabic Qabalah.

1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  Two ladies, one Swiss and the other French, visited Maharshi. The younger of the ladies asked several questions, of which the most important was: "Brahman is the same as jiva. If the jiva be under illusion it amounts to saying that Brahman is under illusion. How is that possible?"
  M.: If Brahman be under illusion and wants disillusionment let Him raise the question.

1.57 - Public Scapegoats, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
  is the most important of the whole year. Its aim is to bring good
  luck to the village during the ensuing year by solemnly expelling

1.59 - Geomancy, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  But, when he got to the water, his horse turned sharply aside and refused to drink. At that he dismounted and put his finger in the water to test it. He had struck one of the most important deposits of alkali in South Africa. Mineral wealth indeed!
  He went home rejoicing and took the necessary steps to protect his find. In the course of the formalities he found it necessary to come to London, which he did, and told me the whole story.

1.63 - Fear, a Bad Astral Vision, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  One moment, though, about the fear of death. The radical cure is the gaining of the magical memory. (See also AL I, 58) The more previous incarnations one can remember, the less important appears the moment when the curve of life dips below the horizon. (One verycurious point: when one looks back at the moment of one of one's deaths, one exclaims: "By Jove! that was a narrow escape, and no mistake!" Escape from what? Me no savvy; but such is the fact.) How to acquire that Memory? The development of the Magical Record is by far the most important of one's weapons. How to use the Record is not easy to explain; but there is a sort of knack which comes to one suddenly. And there are certain types of Samadhi during the exercise of which these memories appear spontaneously, without warning of any kind.
  There is comfort in the thought that the persistent practice of seeking out one's fears, analysing them and their causes, then deliberately evoking them to "come out, you cad, and fight!" (W.S. Gilbert), presently sets up a habit of mind which is a strong fortress against all fear's modes of assault; one springs automatically to action when a patrol sneaks up within range of one's guns.

1.63 - The Interpretation of the Fire-Festivals, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
  accident that two of the most important and widely spread of the
  festivals are timed to coincide more or less exactly with the summer

1.83 - Epistola Ultima, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  Vol. III, No. 1 Contains an immense number and variety of official publications, rituals, treatises, etc. Also special Supplements such as The Vision and the Voice; translation of Eliphas Lvi's The Key of the Mysteries; Sepher Sephiroth; H. P. Blavatsky's The Voice of the Silence, with a Commentary by Fr. O.M., etc., etc. There have been various reprints of the Equinox serial since the 1970s. the most important magical writings from vol. I and vol. III no. 1 appear in the compilation Gems from the Equinox, published by New Falcon. The whole of Equionx vol. I and III (1) can be found online at the-equinox.org.
  Vol. III, 3 The Equinox of the Gods Reprinted by New Falcon, and as part of the "Blue Brick" edition of Magick. As Crowley notes in Chapter 81 of MWT, this is part IV of Book 4.

1929-06-30 - Repulsion felt towards certain animals, etc - Source of evil, Formateurs - Material world, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Ours is the most material world, but it is not necessarily low down, at least, not for that reason; if it is low down, it is because it is obscure and ignorant, not because it is material. It is a mistake to make matter a synonym for obscurity and ignorance. And the material world too is not the only world in which we live: it is rather one of many in which we exist simultaneously, and in one way the most important of them all. For this world of matter is the point of concentration of all the worlds; it is the field of concretisation of all the worlds; it is the place where all the worlds will have to manifest. At present it is disharmonious and obscure; but that is only an accident, a false start. One day it will become beautiful, rhythmic, full of light; for that is the consummation for which it was made.
  ***

1929-07-28 - Art and Yoga - Art and life - Music, dance - World of Harmony, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The two are not so antagonistic as you seem to think. There is nothing to prevent a Yogi from being an artist or an artist from being a Yogi. But when you are in Yoga, there is a profound change in the values of things, of Art as of everything else; you begin to look at Art from a very different standpoint. It is no longer the one supreme all-engrossing thing for you, no longer an end in itself. Art is a means, not an end; it is a means of expression. And the artist then ceases too to believe that the whole world turns round what he is doing or that his work is the most important thing that has ever been done. His personality counts no longer; he is an agent, a channel, his art a means of expressing his relations with the Divine. He uses it for that purpose as he might have used any other means that were part of the powers of his nature.
  But does an artist feel at all any impulse to create once he takes up Yoga?
  Why should he not have the impulse? He can express his relation with the Divine in the way of his art, exactly as he would in any other. If you want art to be the true and highest art, it must be the expression of a divine world brought down into this material world. All true artists have some feeling of this kind, some sense that they are intermediaries between a higher world and this physical existence. If you consider it in this light, Art is not very different from Yoga. But most often the artist has only an indefinite feeling, he has not the knowledge. Still, I knew some who had it; they worked consciously at their art with the knowledge. In their creation they did not put forward their personality as the most important factor; they considered their work as an offering to the Divine, they tried to express by it their relation with the Divine.
  This was the avowed function of Art in the Middle Ages. The primitive painters, the builders of cathedrals in Mediaeval Europe had no other conception of art. In India all her architecture, her sculpture, her painting have proceeded from this source and were inspired by this ideal. The songs of Mirabai and the music of Thyagaraja, the poetic literature built up by her devotees, saints and Rishis rank among the worlds greatest artistic possessions.
  --
  Why not? The Mahabharata and Ramayana are certainly not inferior to anything created by Shakespeare or any other poet, and they are said to have been the work of men who were Rishis and had done Yogic tapasy. The Gita which, like the Upanishads, ranks at once among the greatest literary and the greatest spiritual works, was not written by one who had no experience of Yoga. And where is the inferiority to your Milton and Shelley in the famous poems written whether in India or Persia or elsewhere by men known to be saints, Sufis, devotees? And, then, do you know all the Yogis and their work? Among the poets and creators can you say who were or who were not in conscious touch with the Divine? There are some who are not officially Yogis, they are not gurus and have no disciples; the world does not know what they do; they are not anxious for fame and do not attract to themselves the attention of men; but they have the higher consciousness, are in touch with a Divine Power, and when they create they create from there. The best paintings in India and much of the best statuary and architecture were done by Buddhist monks who passed their lives in spiritual contemplation and practice; they did supreme artistic work, but did not care to leave their names to posterity. The chief reason why Yogis are not usually known by their art is that they do not consider their art-expression as the most important part of their life and do not put so much time and energy into it as a mere artist. And what they do does not always reach the public. How many there are who have done great things and not published them to the world!
  Have Yogis done greater dramas than Shakespeare?

1951-02-03 - What is Yoga? for what? - Aspiration, seeking the Divine. - Process of yoga, renouncing the ego., #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   These are small instances, there are many others, things more important. the most important, the most difficult thing is to renounce ones ego, for to somebody who is not ready, to renounce his ego is like dying and dying much more than a physical death, for to him the death of the ego is like a dissolution of the beingthis is not correct but it begins by giving this sort of impression. To be immortal one must renounce all limitations and the ego is the greatest of limitations; hence if I am not immortal, what is the good of that?
   In the same talk someone had asked Mother how all those then present had happened to meet, and Mother had answered:

1951-02-12 - Divine force - Signs indicating readiness - Weakness in mind, vital - concentration - Divine perception, human notion of good, bad - Conversion, consecration - progress - Signs of entering the path - kinds of meditation - aspiration, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Yes, the most important indication is a perfect equality of soul in all circumstances. It is an absolutely indispensable basis; something very quiet, calm, peaceful, the feeling of a great force. Not the quietness that comes from inertia but the sensation of a concentrated power which keeps you always steady, whatever happens, even in circumstances which may appear to you the most terrible in your life. That is the first sign.
   A second sign: you feel completely imprisoned in your ordinary normal consciousness, as in something extremely hard, something suffocating and intolerable, as though you had to pierce a hole in a brass wall. And the torture becomes almost unbearable, it is stifling; there is an inner effort to break through and you cannot manage to break through. This also is one of the first signs. It means that your inner consciousness has reached a point where its outer mould is much too small for it the mould of ordinary life, of ordinary activities, ordinary relations, all that becomes so small, so petty; you feel within you a force to break all that.

1951-03-05 - Disasters- the forces of Nature - Story of the charity Bazar - Liberation and law - Dealing with the mind and vital- methods, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   But you must take great care to apply at each stage, as perfectly as possible, what you have gained or learnt. If you remain in an indrawn state of consciousness and do not apply materially the inner progress, a time will certainly come when you will not be able to move at all, for your outer being, unchanged, will be like a fetter pulling you back and hindering you from advancing. So, the most important point (what everybody says but only a few do) is to put into practice what you know. With that you have a good chance of succeeding, and with perseverance you will certainly get there.
   You must never get discouraged when you find yourself before a wall, never say, Oh! What shall I do? It is still there. In this way the difficulty will still be there and still there and still there, till the very end. It is only when you reach the goal that everything will suddenly crumble down.

1951-04-07 - Origin of Evil - Misery- its cause, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Ours is the most material world, but it is not necessarily low down, at least, not for that reason; if it is low down, it is because it is obscure and ignorant, not because it is material. It is a mistake to make matter a synonym for obscurity and ignorance. And the material world too is not the only world in which we live: it is rather one of many in which we exist simultaneously, and in one way the most important of them all. For this world of matter is the point of concentration of all the worlds; it is the field of concretisation of all the worlds; it is the place where all the worlds will have to manifest. At present it is disharmonious and obscure; but that is only an accident, a false start. One day it will become beautiful, rhythmic, full of light; for that is the consummation for which it was made.
   Questions and Answers 1929 (30 June)

1951-04-17 - Unity, diversity - Protective envelope - desires - consciousness, true defence - Perfection of physical - cinema - Choice, constant and conscious - law of ones being - the One, the Multiplicity - Civilization- preparing an instrument, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Physical perfection does not at all prove, not the least in the world, that one has taken one step farther towards spirituality. Physical perfection means that the instrument the force will useany force whateverwill be sufficiently perfected to be remarkably expressive. But the important point, the essential point is the force which will use the instrument, and it is there that the choice is necessary. If you perfect your body and make of it a remarkable instrument, you must not at all think that because of that you are nearer to the spiritual life. You prepare a remarkable instrument so that this spiritual life may manifest in it, if it manifests itself. But it is for you always to choose what will be manifested. There are people who perfect their body, who build a strong, solid, energetic, agile, capable body, and all this simply to be able to better affirm their ego and the strength of their ego. Others may prepare the body to be sure that when the spiritual light manifests, it will find an instrument capable of doing all that is asked of it. Whatever the work required, the instrument will be so perfected as to be able to do it without difficulty, spontaneously, immediately. This is to arouse your attention to the most important fact which is the choice of the force you will allow to manifest in your body. Perfect your body, make it a remarkable instrument, but never forget that there is a choice to be made and that this choice ought to be made constantlyone doesnt make it once for all, it must always be renewed. Because, before one reaches the total union, the total expression, there will always be this invasion of external things which will try to enter you and spoil all the work. So, the necessary, indispensable condition is a constant vigilance. Do not sleep with satisfaction under the pretext that you have once made your choice: Oh! Now it is all right, everything is all right. In principle everything is all right; in the sincerity of your choice lies also the guarantee of its duration. But for the sincerity to be perfect and the choice unshakable, one must never sleep I dont mean you must not sleep physically, I mean the consciousness must not sleep! And this is an introduction to what I shall read to you next time, a letter Sri Aurobindo wrote quite a long time ago; if I remember rightly, it was in 1928, October 1928. You see, things do not change very quickly.
   How should one express the particularity of ones being?

1951-04-28 - Personal effort - tamas, laziness - Static and dynamic power - Stupidity - psychic and intelligence - Philosophies- different languages - Theories of Creation - Surrender of ones being and ones work, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   the most important surrender is the surrender of your character, your way of being, so that it may change. If you do not surrender your very own nature, never will this nature change. It is this that is most important. You have certain ways of understanding, certain ways of reacting, certain ways of feeling, almost certain ways of progressing, and above all, a special way of looking at life and expecting from it certain thingswell, it is this you must surrender. That is, if you truly want to receive the divine Light and transform yourself, it is your whole way of being you must offeroffer by opening it, making it as receptive as possible so that the divine Consciousness which sees how you ought to be, may act directly and change all these movements into movements more true, more in keeping with your real truth. This is infinitely more important than surrendering what one does. It is not what one does (what one does is very important, thats evident) that is the most important thing but what one is. Whatever the activity, it is not quite the way of doing it but the state of consciousness in which it is done that is important. You may work, do disinterested work without any idea of personal profit, work for the joy of working, but if you are not at the same time ready to leave this work, to change the work or change the way of working, if you cling to your own way of working, your surrender is not complete. You must come to a point when everything is done because you feel within, very clearly, in a more and more imperious way, that it is this which must be done and in this particular way, and that you do it only because of that. You do not do it because of any habit, attachment or preference, nor even any conception, even a preference for the idea that it is the best thing to doelse your surrender is not total. As long as you cling to something, as long as there is something in you which says, This may change, that may change, but that, that will not change, as long as you say about anything at all, That will not change (not that it refuses to change, but because you cant think of its changing), your surrender is not complete.
   It goes without saying that if in your action, your work, you have in the least this feeling, I am doing it because I have been told to do it, and there is not a total adherence of the being, and you do not do the work because you feel it must be done and you love doing it; if something holds back, stands apart, separate, I was told it had to be done like that so I did it like that, it means there is a great gulf between you and surrender. True surrender is to feel that one wants, one has, this complete inner adherence: you cannot do but that, that which you have been given to do, and what you have not been given to do you cannot do. But at another moment the work may change; at any moment it may be something else, if it is decided that it be something else. It is there that plasticity comes in. That makes a very great difference. It is well understood that those who work are told, Yes, work, that is your way of surrendering, but it is a beginning. This way has to be progressive. It is only a beginning, do you understand?

1953-04-01, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   You can be a different person at different moments in your life. I know people who took decisions, had a strong will, knew what they wanted and prepared to do it. Then there was a little reversal in the being; another part came up and spoilt all the work in ten minutes. What had been accomplished in two months was all undone. When the first part comes back it is in dismay, it says: What! Then the whole work has to be started again, slowly. Hence it is evident that it is very important to become aware of the psychic being; one must have a kind of signpost or a mirror in which all things are reflected and show themselves as they truly are. And then, according to what they are, one puts them in one place or another; one begins to explain, to organise. That takes time. The same part comes back three or four times and every part that comes up says: Put me in the first place; what the others do is not important, not at all important, it is I who will decide, for I am the most important. I am sure that if you look at yourself, you will see that theres not one among you who has not had the experience. You want to become conscious, to have goodwill, you have understood, your aspiration is shiningall is brilliant, illuminated; but all of a sudden something happens, a useless conversation, some unfortunate reading, and that upsets everything. Then one thinks that it was an illusion one lived in, that all things were seen from a certain angle.
   This is life. One stumbles and falls at the first occasion. One tells oneself: Oh! One cant always be so serious, and when the other part returns, once again, one repents bitterly: I was a fool, I have wasted my time, now I must begin again. At times there is one part thats ill-humoured, in revolt, full of worries, and another which is progressive, full of surrender. All that, one after the other.

1953-05-27, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Music is a means of expressing certain thoughts, feelings, emotions, aspirations. There is even a region where all these movements exist and from there, as they are brought down, they take a musical form. One who is a very good composer, with some inspiration, will produce very beautiful music, for he is a good musician. A bad musician may also have a very high inspiration; he may receive something which is good, but as he possesses no musical capacity, what he produces is terribly commonplace, ordinary, uninteresting. But if you go beyond, if you reach just the place where there is this origin of musicof the idea and emotion and inspirationif you reach there, you can taste these things without being in the least troubled by the forms; the commonplace musical form can be linked up again with that, because that was the inspiration of the writer of the music. Naturally, there are cases where there is no inspiration, where the origin is merely a kind of mechanical music. It is not always interesting in every case. But what I mean is that there is an inner condition in which the external form is not the most important thing; it is the origin of the music, the inspiration from beyond, which is important; it is not purely the sounds, it is what the sounds express.
   So the expression cannot be better than the inspiration?
   There are musical pieces which have no inspiration, they are like mechanical works. There are musicians who possess a great virtuosity, that is, who have thoroughly mastered the technique and who, for example, can execute without making a mistake the fastest and most difficult things. They can play music but it expresses nothing: it is like a machine. It means nothing, except that they have great skill. For what is most important is the inspiration, in everything that one does; in all human creations the most important thing is inspiration. Naturally, the execution must be on the same level as the inspiration; to be able to express truly well the highest things one must have a very good technique. I do not say that technique is not necessary; it is even indispensable, but it is not the only indispensable thing, it is less important than inspiration.
   The essential quality of music depends upon where the music comes from, upon its origin.

1953-06-10, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Therefore, the most important thing to do when you are attacked by an adverse force, is to say to yourself: Yes, the force comes from outside and the attack is there, but there must certainly be a correspondence in my nature, otherwise it could not have attacked me. Well, I am going to look and find within me what allows this force to come and I am going to send it back or transform it or put the light of consciousness upon it so that it may be converted, or drive it away so that it remains no longer within me. There is a way, you see? When the force comes, the adverse force, when it attacks, the part which corresponds rushes out to meet it, it goes forward. A kind of meeting takes place. If at that time, instead of being altogether overwhelmed or taken by surprise and off your guard, you observe very closely what it was within you that vibrated (it makes the sound tat, tat, tat: another thing has entered), then you can catch it. At that moment, you catch it and say to it: Get out with your friends, I dont want you any longer! You send away the two together, the part that attracted and the thing it attracted; they are sent away and you are absolutely clear.
   For that, you must be very vigilant and have a little courage, in the sense that at times you have to grip it hard and then pull it outit hurts a little and then you throw it out along with the forces you send away. After that, it is finished. And so long as this is not done, it comes back and back again; and then if one is not in oneself sufficiently courageous or vigilant or persevering, the fourth or fifth time one falls flat and says: Thats too much, I have had enough! So the force installs itself, contented, satisfied with its work; and then you can see it laughing, it enjoys itself immensely, it got what it wanted. Now to send it back again means a very considerable work. But if you follow the other method, if you look closely this way: Well, I am going to catch the thing that has allowed it to come, you see somewhere within you something rising, wriggling, coming up in response to the evil force which is approaching. That is the moment to seize it and throw it out with all the rest.

1953-06-24, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Essentially, from the general point of view, particularly from the intellectual viewpoint, the most important thing is the capacity of attention and concentration, it is that which one must work at and develop. From the point of view of action (physical action), it is the will: you must work and build up an unshakable will. From the intellectual point of view, you must work and build up a power of concentration which nothing can shake. And if you have both, concentration and will, you will be a genius and nothing will resist you.
   ***

1953-07-01, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Whatever the way we follow, the subject we study, we always arrive at the same result. the most important thing for an individual is to unify himself around his divine centre; in that way he becomes a true individual, master of himself and his destiny. Otherwise, he is a plaything of forces that toss him about like a piece of cork on a river. He goes where he does not want to go, he is made to do things he does not want to do, and finally he falls into a hole without having the strength to hold on. But if you are consciously organised, unified around the divine centre, ruled and directed by it, you are master of your destiny. That is worth the trouble of attempting In any case, I find it preferable to be the master rather than the slave. It is a rather unpleasant sensation to feel yourself pulled by the strings and made to do things whether you want to or not that is quite irrelevant but to be compelled to act because something pulls you by the strings, something which you do not even see that is exasperating. However, I do not know, but I found it very annoying, even when I was a little child. At five, it began to seem to me quite intolerable and I sought for a way so that it might be otherwisewithout people getting a chance to scold me. For I knew nobody who could help me and I did not have the chance that you have, someone who can tell you: This is what you have to do! There was nobody to tell me that. I had to find it out all by myself. And I found it. I started at five. And you, you were five long ago Voil.
   ***

1953-07-22, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Good. We say then that there is an imbalance between the different parts of the being, disharmony in their working. That is what I have just told you. And then there are internal conflicts. These are quarrels. There are internal quarrels among the different parts of yourself. Supposing there is an organ (it happens very often) that needs rest and there is another that wants action, and both at the same time. How are you going to manage it? They begin to quarrel. If you do what one wants, the other protests! And so you have to find a middle term to put them in harmony. And then, at times, if you add to the physical the vital and mental (I do not speak of the speculative mind or the independent vital, I am speaking of the mental and vital parts of the body, because there is a physical vital and a physical mind; there is a physical mind and this physical mind is the worst of all, it is that which goes on all the time and you have the utmost difficulty in stopping it: it goes on and on and on); well, if there is a dispute between them, between the mind, the vital and the physical, you have a battlefield, and this battlefield can become the cause of all possible illnesses. They fight violently. One wants something, the other does not, they quarrel and you are in a kind of internal whirlwind. That can give you feveryou do get it usuallyor else you are seized by an inner shivering and you have no longer any control. For the most important of all causes for bodily illness is that the body begins to get restless; it trembles and the trembling increases more and more, more and more and you feel that you will never be able to re-establish the balance, it eludes you. Then in that case you must know what the dispute is about, the reason of the dispute and find out how to reconcile the people within you.
   All these are functional imbalances.

1953-09-16, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   This is said of actors who show off in a comedy, but the word is used also in speaking of someone who over-estimates his value, who shows more than he has, displays more than he really has and who thinks above all of getting appreciated. That is the most important thing for him, to be appreciated.
   How can memory be increased?

1953-10-07, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Very important, of capital importance! Besides, thats the field of work given to each one. It is this one must understand, that each onethis totality of substance constituting your inner and outer body, the totality of substance with which your being is built from the outermost to the inmostis a field of work; it is as though one had gathered together carefully, accumulated a certain number of vibrations and put them at your disposal for you to work upon them fully. It is like a field of action constantly at your disposal: night and day, awake or asleep, all the timenobody can take it away from you, it is wonderful! You may refuse to use it (as most people do), but it is a mass to be transformed that is there in your hands, fully at your disposal, given to you so that you may learn to work upon it. So, the most important thing is to begin by doing that. You can do nothing for others unless you are able to do it for yourself. You can never give a good advice to anyone unless you are able to give it to yourself first, and to follow it. And if you see a difficulty somewhere, the best way of changing this difficulty is to change it in yourself first. If you see a defect in anyone, you may be sure it is in you, and you begin to change it in yourself. And when you will have changed it in yourself, you will be strong enough to change it in others. And this is a wonderful thing, people dont realise what an infinite grace it is that this universe is arranged in such a way that there is a collection of substance, from the most material to the highest spiritual, all that gathered together into what is called a small individual, but at the disposal of a central Will. And that is yours, your field of work, nobody can take it away from you, it is your own property. And to the extent you can work upon it, you will be able to have an action upon the world. But only to that extent. One must do more for oneself, besides, than one does for others.
   Is it possible to know others before knowing oneself?

1953-12-30, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   It is true that apart from a few rare exceptions, the teaching is given on the most ordinary principles. I know it. But, for instance, in order that it be otherwise, the books which are used should be prepared here, with the extracts chosen here, even with the method of teaching worked out here. I have asked several persons to do it. But this is one of those interminable tasks which make you always put off for the next year the possibility of taking a class which does not follow the grooves of the past. That preparation of the material, for instance, for the true understanding of things, that takes time. One has to face very concrete problems. It is difficult to teach children without their having books to be able to study. But these books, finally, are perforce ordered from the stock available. There is not much choice. One tries to find the best that is available, but the best that is there is yet not very good. There also, I need people to prepare them, these books. But precisely, I believe that someone who has grown up here from childhood and felt things quite subconsciously when very young and who has in spite of every-thing that leaves a trace, it cannot go without any effect; and when one sees children brought up here beside those who come from outside, there is truly a great difference (perhaps not outwardly in the mechanical part of training, but in the understanding, the intelligence, in the inner awakening), there is a considerable difference, and the new ones need some time to come up to the same level. It is something beyond books, dont you see? It is like the difference between living in a pure atmosphere, filling the lungs with pure air every time one breathes and living in an infected atmosphere and poisoning oneself every time one breathes. From the point of view of consciousness it is the same phenomenon, and it is essentially the most important thing. And it is this which completely escapes the superficial consciousness. You are plunged in a sea of consciousness full of light, aspiration, true understanding, essential purity, and whether you want it or not it enters. Even for those who are shut up in their outer consciousness, well, they cannot sleep in vain. There is an action here during sleep which is quite considerable, considerable. So that has an effect, it is visible. I have seen people who had come altogether from outside, who knew nothing (only they had spent their life taking interest in children), well, the impression of these peoplevisitors, people just passing by theyare all quite bewildered: But you have children here as I have never seen elsewhere! As for us, we are used to it, arent we? They are spontaneously like that, quite naturally. But there is an awakening in the consciousness, there is a kind of inner response and a feeling of blossoming, of inner freedom which is not found elsewhere. Some of the children who come here are terribly well brought upso polite, so well-bred, who answer you so and one gets the impression of little puppets, just half alive, who have been well polished, well brushed, well groomed outside, but within there is no response. Here, I cannot say that we give an example of unusual politeness (!), one is rather a little a little what people call ill-bred. But in that too one is so alive! One feels a consciousness vibrating here. And that is the most important part of all. And of this one does not speak, for these are things one does, but does not telloccasion like todays has to be there for me to speak to you about it. Indeed, you have been here for so many years, and this is the first time I have had it. Voil.
   You have exhausted all your questions?

1954-07-28 - Money - Ego and individuality - The shadow, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  When one sees them thinking all the time about themselves, referring everything to themselves, governed simply by their own little person, placing themselves in the centre of the universe and trying to organise the whole universe including God around themselves, as though that were the most important thing in the universe. If one could only see oneself objectively, you know, as one sees oneself in a mirror, observe oneself living, it is so grotesque! (Laughing) Thats enough for you to One suddenly feels that he is becomingoh, so absolutely ridiculous!
  I remember I read in Frenchit was a translationa sentence of Tagores which amused me very much. He was speaking of a little dog. He said he compared it with something I dont remember the details now, but what struck me was this: the little dog was sitting on its mistresss lap and fancying itself the centre of the universe! This struck me very strongly. It is true! I used to know a little dog like this! But there are many like that, almost all are like that. You see, they want everybody to pay attention to them, and in fact they succeed very well. Because when there is a little dog, as when there is a little childits almost the same thingeveryone attends to them.

1954-08-25 - Ananda aspect of the Mother - Changing conditions in the Ashram - Ascetic discipline - Mothers body, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The first time I knew and nobody told me this, I knew it by experience the first time I knew that there was a discovery to make within me, well, that was the most important thing. This had to be put before everything. And when I found, as I said, a book, a man, just to give me a little indication, to tell me, Here you are. If you do this the path will open before you, why, I rushed headlong like a like a cyclone, and nothing could have stopped me.
  And how many years you have been here, half asleep! You think about it, of course, from time to time, especially when I speak to you about it; at times when you read. But that ardour, that will which conquers all obstacles, that concentration which overcomes everything!

1954-09-15 - Parts of the being - Thoughts and impulses - The subconscient - Precise vocabulary - The Grace and difficulties, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  This is the most important point. It is to have a certain inner humility which makes you aware of your helplessness without the Grace, that truly, without it you are incomplete and powerless. This, to begin with, is the first thing.
  It is an experience one can very well have. When, you see, even people who know nothing find themselves in quite difficult circumstances or facing a problem which must be solved or, as I just told you, an impulse which must be overcome or something that has disturbed them and then they realise they are lost, they dont know what to doneither their mind nor their will nor their feelings helpthey dont know what to do, then it happen; there is within them something like a kind of call, a call to something which can do what one cannot. One aspires to something which is capable of doing what one cant do.

1954-09-29 - The right spirit - The Divine comes first - Finding the Divine - Mistakes - Rejecting impulses - Making the consciousness vast - Firm resolution, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  You do not understand the French expression passer.3 However, in English it is the same thing; I dont know what the text is in English, but comes first, do you understand what comes first means? It means that before every other consideration it is the Divine who is the first consideration that all other consideration which are not the Divine are secondary, without importance. That is, as we have just explained for instance: when you have to make a choice, you must choose according to the divine inspiration or what will bring you closer to the Divine or put you in the best situation to attain to the Divine, because it is the Divine who comes first, all personal interest or personal satisfaction must come afterwards. First the Divine. And consecration to the Divine must come first, everything else comes afterwards. If it comes, it comes; if it doesnt, it does not matter. What matters is the seeking for the Divine, this is the first thing, the thing that comes before everything, the most important thing. This is what it means.
  There is something truer in you.4 It is the psychic, isnt it?

1954-10-06 - What happens is for the best - Blaming oneself -Experiences - The vital desire-soul -Creating a spiritual atmosphere -Thought and Truth, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  All who have visions usually deform them, all, almost without exception. I dont think there is one in a million who doesnt deform his vision, because the minute it touches the brain it touches the domain of preferences, desires, attachments, and this indeed is enough to give a colouring, a special look to what you have seen. Even if you have seen correctly, you translate it wrongly in your consciousness. This truly asks for a great perfection. But you can have perfection without the gift of vision. And the perfection can be as great without the gift as with it. If it interests you specially, you can make an effort to obtain it. But only if it interests you specially. If you lay great store by knowing certain things, you can undertake a discipline; you may undertake a discipline also in order to change the functioning of your sees. I think I have already explained to you how one can hear at a distance, see at a distance, even physically; but this means considerable effort, which perhaps is not always in proportion to the result, because these are side issues, not the central, the most important thing. These are side issues which may be interesting, but in itself this is not the spiritual life; one may have a spiritual life without this. Now, the two together can give you perhaps a greater capacity. But for this too you must tell yourself, If I ought to have itif I take the true attitude of surrender to the Divine and of complete consecrationif I ought to have it I shall have it. As, if I ought to have the gift of speech, I shall have it. And in fact, if one is truly surrendered, in the true way and totally, at every minute one is what he ought to be and does what he ought to do and knows what he ought to know. This but naturally, for this one should have overcome the petty limitations of the ego, and this does not happen overnight. But it can happen.
  Another question?

1955-02-23 - On the sense of taste, educating the senses - Fasting produces a state of receptivity, drawing energy - The body and food, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  One can, for example, very well make a very deep study of taste and have a very detailed knowledge of the different tastes of things, of the association between ideas and taste, in order to acquire a full development-not positively vital, but a development of the senses. There is a great difference between this and those who eat through greediness, who think all the time about food. You see, for them eating is the most important thing; all their thoughts are concentrated on it, and they eat not because they need to eat but through desire and greed and gluttony.
  In fact people who work in order to develop their taste, to refine it, are rarely very much attached to food. It is not through attachment to food that they do it. It is for the cultivation of their senses, which is a very different thing. It is like the artist, you know, who trains his eyes to appreciate forms and colours, lines, the composition of things, the harmony found in physical nature; it is not at all through desire that he does this, it is through taste, culture, the development of the sense of sight and the appreciation of beauty. And usually artists who are real artists and love their art and live in the sense of beauty, seeking beauty, are people who don't have many desires. They live in the sense of a growth not only visual, but of the appreciation of beauty. There is a great difference between this and people who live by their impulses and desires. That's altogether something else.
  --
  It is because usually the vital being is very closely concentrated on the body and when the body is well fed it takes its strength from the food, its energy from the food, and it is one way... it is obviously almost the only way; not the only one, but the most important in the present conditions of life... but it is a very tamasic way of absorbing energy.
  If you think about it, you see, it is the vital energy which is in either plants or animals, that is, logically it is of an inferior quality to the vital energy which should be in man, who is a slightly higher being in the gradation of the species. So if you draw from below you draw at the same time the inconscience that is below. It is impossible to eat without absorbing a considerable amount of inconscience; this makes you heavy, coarsens you; and then if you eat much, a large amount of your consciousness is absorbed in digesting and assimilating what you have eaten. So already, if you don't take food, you don't have all this inconscience to assimilate and transform inside you; it sets free the energies. And then, as there is an instinct in the being to recuperate the energies spent, if you don't take them from food, that is, from below, you instinctively make an effort to take them through union with the universal vital forces which are free, and if one knows how to assimilate them one does so directly and then there is no limit.

1955-04-06 - Freuds psychoanalysis, the subliminal being - The psychic and the subliminal - True psychology - Changing the lower nature - Faith in different parts of the being - Psychic contact established in all in the Ashram, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Then why is it the most important?
  Because it is internal. This is what supports the outer. The outer is only an appearance of this. As I said, in a dream when one goes there, one knows things which one doesnt know, one can do things, one is in touch with things which one doesnt know in the waking consciousness, because it is too superficial.

1955-05-18 - The Problem of Woman - Men and women - The Supreme Mother, the new creation - Gods and goddesses - A story of Creation, earth - Psychic being only on earth, beings everywhere - Going to other worlds by occult means, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  There are in the universe, already, beings who have no sex, who are neither men nor women, and there are many of them in the vital world. There are entities with sex in the vital world but in its most material part, the one closest to the earth, and not in its most important part; the most important part is sexless. This does not make them any better, however, since they are all beings hostile to the divine Will and divine realisation, but it gives them a terrific force. And so in return the gods too have created a whole set of beings who have no sex and whom men speak of as angels; how does one call it? Your guardian angel, or what else? It is especially angel.
  (Pavitra) Cherubim, seraphim.

1955-06-15 - Dynamic realisation, transformation - The negative and positive side of experience - The image of the dry coconut fruit - Purusha, Prakriti, the Divine Mother - The Truth-Creation - Pralaya - We are in a transitional period, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  One can do Sri Aurobindo says, doesnt he, that one can do everything at the same time, but the centre, the most important part, must first be transformed sufficiently before one can think of transforming his body like some people who, for example, immediately want to change their food or even to stop eating, because, they say, finally when the Supermind comes one will no longer need to eat. So before the Supermind has come they want to begin by what will happen; they stop eating, stop sleeping, and the result is that they fall very ill.
  It is preferable at first to begin by receiving the Supermind in ones mind with a sufficient knowledge, and gradually come to transforming all the rest.

1955-06-22 - Awakening the Yoga-shakti - The thousand-petalled lotus- Reading, how far a help for yoga - Simple and complicated combinations in men, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  It depends on this: when one thinks that it is the most important thing in his life. Thats all.
  Some people sit in meditation, concentrate on the base of the vertebral column and want it very much to awake, but thats not enough. It is when truly it becomes the most important thing in ones life, when all the rest seems to have lost all taste, all interest, all importance, when one feels within that one is born for this, that one is here upon earth for this, and that it is the only thing that truly counts, then thats enough.
  One can concentrate on the different centres; but sometimes one concentrates for so long, with so much effort, and has no result. And then one day something shakes you, you feel that you are going to lose your footing, you have to cling on to something; then you cling within yourself to the idea of union with the Divine, the idea of the divine Presence, the idea of the transformation of the consciousness, and you aspire, you want, you try to organise your feelings, movements, impulses around this. And it comes.

1956-01-25 - The divine way of life - Divine, Overmind, Supermind - Material body for discovery of the Divine - Five psychological perfections, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  But why should there not be faithfulness? I didnt put it down, because I didnt try to recall anything, I simply wrote down what seemed to me the most important and most general. But it may be put in various ways.
  In any case, what is always there, in all combinations and to whomever I give it, the first among them all is sincerity. For if there is no sincerity, one cannot advance even by half a step. So that is the first, and it is always there.

1956-03-14 - Dynamic meditation - Do all as an offering to the Divine - Significance of 23.4.56. - If twelve men of goodwill call the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  I think the most important thing is to know why one meditates; this is what gives the quality of the meditation and makes it of one order or another.
  You may meditate to open yourself to the divine Force, you may meditate to reject the ordinary consciousness, you may meditate to enter the depths of your being, you may meditate to learn how to give yourself integrally; you may meditate for all kinds of things. You may meditate to enter into peace and calm and silencethis is what people generally do, but without much success. But you may also meditate to receive the Force of transformation, to discover the points to be transformed, to trace out the line of progress. And then you may also meditate for very practical reasons: when you have a difficulty to clear up, a solution to find, when you want help in some action or other. You may meditate for that too.

1956-03-21 - Identify with the Divine - The Divine, the most important thing in life, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  object:1956-03-21 - Identify with the Divine - The Divine, the most important thing in life
  author class:The Mother
  --
  First of all, you must begin to seek Him, and then that must be the most important thing in life. The will must be constant, the aspiration constant, the preoccupation constant, and it must be the only thing you truly want. Then you will find Him.
  But of course, if in ones life one thinks of Him for five minutes and is busy with other things for three-quarters of an hour, there is not much chance of success. Anyway, it will take many lifetimes.

1956-11-14 - Conquering the desire to appear good - Self-control and control of the life around - Power of mastery - Be a great yogi to be a good teacher - Organisation of the Ashram school - Elementary discipline of regularity, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  And I ask all those who accept to give lessons, to accept it in that spirit. It is all very well to be kind and do some service and be useful; that is good of course, a very good thing; but it is only one aspect and perhaps the least important aspect of the problem. the most important one is that it is a Grace given to you so that you can achieve self-control, an understanding of the subject and of others which you could never have acquired but for this opportunity.
  And if you have not benefited from this all these years you have been teaching others, it means that you have at the very least wasted half your time.

1957-04-10 - Sports and yoga - Organising ones life, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  And above all, set them the right example. Be yourself what you would like them to be. Give them the example of disinterestedness, patience, self-control, constant good humour, the overcoming of ones little personal dislikes, a sort of constant goodwill, an understanding of others difficulties; and that equality of temper which makes children free from fear, for what makes children deceitful and untruthful, and even cunning, is the fear of being punished. If they feel secure, they will hide nothing and you will then be able to help them to be loyal and honest. Of all things the most important is good example. Sri Aurobindo speaks of that, of the invariable good humour one must have in all circumstances, this self-forgetfulness: not to throw ones own little troubles on others; when one is tired or uncomfortable, not to become unpleasant, impatient. This asks for quite some perfection, a self-control which is a great step on the path of realisation. If one fulfilled the conditions needed to be a true leader, even if only a leader of a small group of children, well, one would already be far advanced in the discipline needed for the accomplishment of the yoga.
  It is from this aspect that the problem should be seen, the aspect of self-mastery, of control, of the endurance which will not allow your personal condition to react on your group-work or collective action. To forget oneself is one of the most essential conditions for being a true leader: to have no selfish interests, to want nothing for oneself, to consider only the good of the group, of the whole, the totality that depends on one; to act only with that aim in mind, without wanting any personal profit from ones action.

1957-05-08 - Vital excitement, reason, instinct, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  This is not very common. Usually, unless one has taken good care to make it otherwise, the impulses the impulses of desireall the enthusiasms and passions with all their reactions are the masters of human life. One must already be something of a sage to be able to undergo a rigorous discipline of the body and obtain from it the ordered, regular effort which can perfect it. There is no longer any room there for all the fancies of desire. You see, as soon as one gives way to excesses, to immoderation of any kind and a disorderly life, it becomes quite impossible to control ones body and develop it normally, not to mention that, naturally, one spoils ones health and as a result the most important part of the ideal of a perfect body disappears; for with bad health, impaired health, one is not much good for anything. And it is certainly the satisfaction of desires and impulses of the vital or the unreasonable demands of certain ambitions which make the body suffer and fall ill.
  Naturally, there is all the ignorance of those who dont even know the most elementary rules of life; but everybody knows one must learn how to live and, for instance, that fire burns and water can drown! People dont need to be told all that, it is something they learn fast as they grow up; but the fact that the control of reason over life is absolutely indispensable even for good health, is not always accepted by the inferior man for whom life has no savour unless he can live out his passions.

1957-07-24 - The involved supermind - The new world and the old - Will for progress indispensable, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  So, the most important thing, it seems, is to remember this fact; even when one doesnt have the tangible experience, to have the certainty of it and faith in it; to remember always, to recall it constantly, to go to sleep with this idea, to wake up with this perception; to do all that one does with this great truth as the background, as a constant support, this great truth that we are witnessing the birth of a new world.
  We can participate in it, we can become this new world. And truly, when one has such a marvellous opportunity, one should be ready to give up everything for its sake.

1957-10-02 - The Mind of Light - Statues of the Buddha - Burden of the past, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  His direct action, apart from his teaching, is limited to a very few people who are very fervent believers and have the power of evocation. Otherwise, the most important part of his action, almost the whole of his action, is associated, united, fused with his teaching. It seems difficult to make a distinction.
  (After a silence) The forms of Divine Power which have incarnated in different beings, have incarnated with a specific aim, for a specific action, at a specific moment of universal development, but essentially they are only differentiated aspects of the One Being; therefore, it is in the particular purpose of the action that the difference lies. Otherwise it is always the same Truth, the same Power, the same eternal Life which manifests in these forms and creates these forms at a given moment for a specific reason and a specific aim; this is preserved in history, but eternally they are new forms which are used for new progress. Old forms can endure as a vibration lasts, but their purpose historically, it could be said, was momentary, and one form is replaced by another in order that a new step forward may be taken. The mistake humanity makes is that it always hangs on to what is behind it and wants to perpetuate the past indefinitely. These things must be used at the time when they are useful. For there is a history of each individual development; you may pass through stages in which these disciplines have their momentary utility, but when you have gone beyond that moment you ought to enter into something else and see that historically it was useful but now is so no longer. Certainly, to those who have reached, for instance, a certain state of development and mental control, I wont say, Read the Dhammapada and meditate on it; it would be a waste of time. I give it to those who have not gone beyond the stage where it is necessary. But always man takes upon his shoulders an interminable burden. He does not want to drop anything of the past and he stoops more and more under the weight of a useless accumulation.

1958-06-18 - Philosophy, religion, occultism, spirituality, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  If one of these things is lacking, the result is not complete. One can make light of this thing or that under the pretext that it is not the most important, the central Thing and to neglect outer things certainly cannot prevent you from entering into spiritual communion with the Supreme, but that is good only for a flight from life.
  If we are to be total, complete beings, to have an integral realisation, we should be able to express our spiritual experience mentally, vitally and physically. And the more our expression is perfect, executed by a complete and perfect being, the more integral and perfect will our realisation be.

1f.lovecraft - The Last Test, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
   cursed specimen left; and a line of the most important bacterial
   cultures incubating in their tubes without a chance to do an ounce of

1f.lovecraft - The Mound, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
   a trying experience, and the most important archaeological feat of my
   career.

2.01 - On the Concept of the Archetype, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  rectly from the unconscious predisposition. the most important
  of these is creative fantasy. In the products of fantasy the pri-

2.01 - THE ADVENT OF LIFE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  class of facts to be considered specifically the most important
  because the rarest and most significant those which depend

2.02 - Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
  Husband -- my partner is the most important person in my life. Together we contri bute the fruits of harmony, industry, charity, and thrift.
  Father -- I help my children experience progressively greater joy in their lives.
  --
  Mission statements are also vital to successful organizations. One of the most important thrusts of my work with organizations is to assist them in developing effective mission statements. And to be effective, that statement has to come from within the bowels of the organization. Everyone should participate in a meaningful way -- not just the top strategy planners, but everyone. Once again, the involvement process is as important as the written product and is the key to its use.
  I am always intrigued whenever I go to IBM and watch the training process there. Time and time again, I see the leadership of the organization come into a group and say that IBM stands for three things: the dignity of the individual, excellence, and service.

2.02 - On Letters, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   But if the difficulty is only intellectual then it need not be solved now. In this Yoga intellect is not the chief instrument, experience is primary. Of course, there is the intellectual side of Yoga which the mind of the sadhak must grasp as it would be helpful to him. But it is the experience which is the most important thing.
   12 OCTOBER 1925

2.02 - The Ishavasyopanishad with a commentary in English, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  for the purposes of mankind, actions are the most important
  of all the various vital operations over which Matariswun presides. Remember therefore that all you do, create, destroy you

2.03 - THE ENIGMA OF BOLOGNA, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  [89] If we are not, as Malvasius was, convinced of the antiquity of the Aelia inscription, we must look round in the medieval literature for possible sources or at least analogies. Here the motif of the triple prediction, or triple cause, of death might put us on the right trail.235 This motif occurs in the Vita Merlini in the old French romance Merlin, as well as in its later imitations in the Spanish and English literature of the fifteenth century. But the most important item, it seems to me, is the so-called Epigram of the Hermaphrodite, attri buted to Mathieu de Vendme (ca. 1150):
  When my pregnant mother bore me in her womb,

2.04 - Agni, the Illumined Will, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Agni is the most important, the most universal of the Vedic gods. In the physical world he is the general devourer and enjoyer. He is also the purifier; when he devours and enjoys, then also he purifies. He is the fire that prepares and perfects; he is also the fire that assimilates and the heat of energy that forms.
  He is the heat of life and creates the sap, the rasa in things, the essence of their substantial being and the essence of their delight.

2.05 - Aspects of Sadhana, #Words Of The Mother II, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The most commonplace circumstances, the events of everyday life, the most apparently insignificant people and things all belong to one or other of these three kinds of examiners. In this vast and complex organisation of tests, those events that are generally considered the most important in life are the easiest examinations to undergo, because they find you ready and on your guard. It is easier to stumble over the little stones in your path, because they attract no attention.
  42

2.05 - On Poetry, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   Sri Aurobindo: It depends. Experience as one has it is not literature; it is too matter of fact. Generally, it is divested of its local and personal character by a great writer. Imagination can only give him a mental construction; but inspiration can give a powerful expression. In a great poem you will find it is not merely an expression, but there is an element of creation. You can't define these things rigidly, but you can describe it so as to include the most important things or factors.
   [1] Example:

2.07 - The Mother Relations with Others, #Words Of The Mother I, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
    Nothing of a rebuke. I had sent what I considered as the most important answer through X and I expected you to acknowledge it hence my look.
    I may add that in all human relations there is always such a coating of vital attractions and impulses over what can be hidden there of a psychic movement that one is never too much on ones guard.

2.0 - THE ANTICHRIST, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
  shell. Then the most important thing about him, the "pure spirit,"
  would remain over. Even concerning these things we have improved our
  --
  and in the most important thing of all. They certainly attack; but
  everything they assail is, by that very fact alone, _distinguished._

2.1.03 - Man and Superman, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The development of forms is not the most important or the most significant part of the evolutionary process; it is one sign of the thing that is being done, but it is not its essence.
  Material form is only a support and means for the progressive manifestation of the Spirit.

2.12 - The Origin of the Ignorance, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  It is affirmed that there is: the dual status of Brahman, quiescent and creative, is indeed one of the most important and fruitful distinctions in Indian philosophy; it is besides a fact of spiritual experience.
  Here let us observe, first, that by this passivity in ourselves we arrive from particular and broken knowledge at a greater, a one and a unifying knowledge; secondly, that if, in the state of passivity, we open ourselves entirely to what is beyond, we can become aware of a Power acting upon us which we feel to be not our own in the limited egoistic sense, but universal or transcendental, and that this Power works through us for a greater play of knowledge, a greater play of energy, action and result, which also we feel to be not our own, but that of the

2.1.3.1 - Students, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   the most important condition is trust, a child-like trust, the candid feeling that knows that needed things will come, that there is no question about it. When the child has need of anything he is certain that it is coming. This kind of simple trust or reliance is the most important condition.
  ***

2.13 - On Psychology, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   It is also the reason why the brain is considered as the most important part of the body. Not because it creates thought but just because it forms the connecting link by which thought can find expression here. It is the apparatus which receives the higher working.
   Disciple: Painting also is in the same difficulty as music.

2.1.4.1 - Teachers, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  All studies, or in any case the greater part of studies consists in learning about the past, in the hope that it will give you a better understanding of the present. But if you want to avoid the danger that the students may cling to the past and refuse to look to the future, you must take great care to explain to them that the purpose of everything that happened in the past was to prepare what is taking place now, and that everything that is taking place now is nothing but a preparation for the road towards the future, which is truly the most important thing for which we must prepare.
  It is by cultivating intuition that one prepares to live for the future.

2.1.5.4 - Arts, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Above all and always the most important thing is Sincerity.
  Develop your inner beingfind your soul, and at the same time you will find the true artistic expression.

2.18 - ON GREAT EVENTS, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
  For he wants to be by all means the most important
  beast on earth, the state; and they believe him too.'

2.18 - The Evolutionary Process - Ascent and Integration, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Above this level of vital mentality and yet more inly extended, is a mind-plane of pure thought and intelligence to which the things of the mental world are the most important realities; those who are under its influence, the philosopher, thinker, scientist, intellectual creator, the man of the idea, the man of the written or spoken word, the idealist and dreamer are the present mental being at his highest attained summit. This mental man has his life-part, his life of passions and desires and ambitions and life-hopes of all kinds and his lower sensational and physical existence, and this lower part can often equibalance or weigh down his nobler mental element so that, although it is the highest portion of him, it does not become dominant and formative in his whole nature: but this is not typical of him in his greatest development, for there the vital and physical are controlled and subjected by the thinking will and intelligence. The mental man cannot transform his nature, but he can control and harmonise it and lay on it the law of a mental ideal, impose a balance or a sublimating and refining influence, and give a high consistency to the multipersonal confusion and conflict or the summary patchwork of our divided and half-constructed being. He can be the observer and governor of his own mind and life, can consciously develop them and become to that extent a self-creator.
  This mind of pure intelligence has behind it our inner or subliminal mind which senses directly all the things of the mindplane, is open to the action of a world of mental forces, and can feel the ideative and other imponderable influences which act upon the material world and the life-plane but which at present we can only infer and cannot directly experience: these intangibles and imponderables are to the mental man real and patent and he regards them as truths demanding to be realised in our or the earth's nature. On the inner plane mind and mindsoul independent of the body can become to us an entire reality, and we can consciously live in them as much as in the body. Thus to live in mind and the things of the mind, to be an intelligence rather than a life and a body, is our highest position, short of spirituality, in the degrees of Nature. The mental man, the man of a self-dominating and self-formative mind and will conscious of an ideal and turned towards its realisation, the high intellect, the thinker, the sage, less kinetic and immediately effective than the vital man, who is the man of action and outer swift lifefulfilment, but as powerful and eventually even more powerful to open new vistas to the race, is the normal summit of Nature's evolutionary formation on the human plane. These three degrees of mentality, clear in themselves, but most often mixed in our composition, are to our ordinary intelligence only psychological types that happen to have developed, and we do not discover any other significance in them; but in fact they are full of significance, for they are the steps of Nature's evolution of mental being towards its self-exceeding, and, as thinking mind is the highest step she can now attain, the perfected mental man is the rarest and highest of her normal human creatures. To go farther she has to bring into the mind and make active in mind, life and body the spiritual principle.

2.19 - Feb-May 1939, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   But the most important thing is to get rid of fear.
   Disciple: But how to get rid of it?

2.2.01 - The Problem of Consciousness, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  It is not sufficient to examine the material, the physiological processes accompanying the functioning of consciousness and attempt to explain the functioning by its physical processes. This leaves consciousness itself unexplained; if it accounts to some extent, but imperfectly, for sense phenomena or mechanical thinking, it does not account in the least for the most important powers of our conscious energy; it does not account for reason, understanding, will, creative thought, conscious selection, the conscious intellectual and spiritual action and self-development of the human being. Yet these are of capital importance, for it is here that consciousness begins to unfold itself out of its chrysalis or matrix of inconscience and a half conscious first working and reveal its true nature. Here consciousness acts in its own right, in its own field and not as a product of the body. To see how the body uses consciousness may be within limits a fruitful science, but it is more important to see how consciousness uses the body and still more important to see how it evolves and uses its own powers. The physiological study of the phenomenon of consciousness is only a side-issue; the psychological study of it independent of all reference to the body except as an instrument is the fruitful line of inquiry. A body using consciousness is the first outward physical fact of our existence, the first step of our evolution; a consciousness using a body is its inner spiritual reality, it is what we have become by our evolution and more and more completely are[.]
  What Is Consciousness?

2.2.01 - Work and Yoga, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  That is the most important thing to get overego, anger, personal dislikes, self-regarding sensitiveness etc. Work is not only for works sake, but as a field of sadhana, for getting rid of the lower personality and its reactions and acquiring a full surrender to the Divine. As for the work itself it must be done according to the organisation arranged or sanctioned by the Mother. You must always remember that it is her work and not personally yours.
  ***

2.3.01 - Aspiration and Surrender to the Mother, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  But of the three the most important is surrender of which the first necessary form is trust and confidence and patience in difficulty.
  There is no rule that trust and confidence can only remain if aspiration is there. On the contrary, when even aspiration is not there because of the pressure of inertia, trust and confidence and patience can remain. If trust and patience fail when aspiration is quiescent, that would mean that the sadhak is relying solely on his own effort - it would mean, "Oh, my aspiration has failed,

2.3.1 - Ego and Its Forms, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  You are right also in thinking that this is really the most important part of your Yoga. The Rajayogis are right in putting purification in front of everything and a preliminary to successful meditationas I was also right in putting it in front along with concentration in the Synthesis. You have only to look around you to see that experiences and even realisations cannot bring one to the goal if this is not doneat any moment they can fall owing to the vital still being impure and full of ego.
  ***

2.3.3 - Anger and Violence, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  It is true that anger and strife are in the nature of the human vital and do not go easily; but what is important is to have the will to change and the clear perception that these things must go. If that will and perception are there, then in the end they will go. the most important help to it is, here also, for the psychic being to grow within for that brings a certain kindliness, patience, charity towards all and one no longer regards everything from the point of view of ones own ego and its pain or pleasure, likings and dislikings. The second help is the growth of the inner peace which outward things cannot trouble. With the peace comes a calm wideness in which one perceives all as one self, all beings as the children of the Mother and the Mother dwelling in oneself and in all. It is that towards which your sadhana will move, for these are the things which come with the growth of the psychic and spiritual consciousness. Then these troubled reactions to outward things will no longer come.
  ***

29.04 - Mothers Playground, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Long ago, some twenty-five years ago, a well-known leader of India, a great educationist came and saw our playground activities and made the remark: "I have travelled all over India, visited various educational institutions, seen women doing gymnastics but it is the first time that I see here in the Ashram girls doing vaulting, especially on parallel bars, I have never seen it anywhere else." Of course, it goes without saying, circus-girls are different. In other words people used to consider vaulting as a specially masculine virtue and along with it many other physical games and exercises. Today it is being gradually found that this is a superstition and the judgment is wrong. The Wimbledon women champions will bear witness. the most important thing is that you have to change the attitude, you have to change consciousness. Of course, there are difficulties on the way, the force of habit, the force of atavism, all that means an extra dose of your consciousnes's or a new consciousness. What is done here and what is done elsewhere, in this respect of freedom being given to women and freedom being given to the younger generation, there is a difference. I will come to it. Mother was repeating so often: the freedom, the liberty you enjoy here is extraordinary, exceptional, there is almost no limit to your freedom. That is to say, it is dangerous, because the unlimited use of freedom means also misuse of freedom. But the Mother took the risk, for that is the only way towards a radical solution, not merely a half-way compromise. Only when you are free, when you are completely, absolutely free, you choose between the good and the bad, and you choose the good of your own will, then the good has a real importance for you, for your consciousness and for your development. Otherwise when you accept and follow the good through compulsion, through fear or social decency or for your own sake in order to be good, through vanity - that is to say, in order to be good you observe certain rules, and you feel you are virtuous, you are dutiful, then it is not the true way, not the true attitude and consciousness. The true consciousness is that you do the right thing not because it is your duty to do it, not because it is worthy to do it and it is expected of you to do it, but because your nature impels you towards it. The flower blooms spontaneously without any sense of duty. It possesses no sense of duty because its nature is to do so, to be beautiful. Human being also could be like that, spontaneous and natural in its action and behaviour. When you do a great thing, you do not feel that you are doing something marvellous or that you are exercising or stretching your power. You do not do a thing because it is your duty to do it but because it is your nature to do so, you cannot but do it. I give an example here. You are students of English and English grammar. Now, tell me, what is the difference between these two statements? "I have to do the thing" and "I am to do the thing"... "I have to do the thing" means 'I am obliged to, I am compelled to, I cannot do otherwise.' "I am to do" means I am doing it, it is for me to do it, I will do it, that is to say it is my nature to do it.' Something of that kind is taught in the Gita - the ideal of kartavyam karma and niskma karma or one's Swadharma. Kartavya is usually translated as duty but it is not correct. Kartavya is one's Dharma or the spontaneous expression of one's nature, what one is to do, not what one has to do. Mother gave this infinite freedom to her children because that was the only way of creating a new nature and she showed also the difference between the right use of freedom and its wrong use. The wrong use is found in all the movements of freedom outside in the normal life, either in the student movement or the women's emancipation movement. Now when women are fighting for freedom for themselves they consider themselves as women fighting for freedom against men. "We are women, you are men, you enjoy privileges, rights, we are denied them, we want them, we claim them." In the youth movement also the young people say: all the powers the old people enjoy, positions and emoluments, that will not do, we want to share these also along with the old. Mother said, "No, it is not the right attitude." You must change your position, your point of view. Going out for a quarrel, for a fight means that you consider yourselves different beings, with different powers, capacities, constitutions etc., etc. First of all you must consider yourselves, all, both the parties, as human beings, not two different species. This is being acknowledged to some extent now-a-days but it is not sufficient, Mother says. If you are content to be human beings, just human beings, differences will arise again and again and not only differences but serious differences. Human nature is composed of these differences, and culture and civilisation meant nothing more than a reconciliation, a compromise among these differences. And the result has been that we have not gone very far for the solution. A deeper truth is to be found, a higher truth and a more powerful truth. We must rise to a new state, Mother spoke always of the truth - the truth of your soul. To the truth of your soul, in the truth of your soul you are neither man nor woman, neither young nor old - tvam kumra uta v kumri, tvam jrna... you are all that in appearance, for you are something more or something else.
   You are to take your stand on your soul, that was the lesson that the Mother was trying to impart in the playground education. So long as you are in the normal consciousness imbedded in your body-consciousness and view things from there, your life also will be built in the pattern created by the body-consciousness. Life in that pattern can proceed only through difference and distinction, contrast and contradiction, conflict and battle. So long as you stick to your habitual position it will be so; the remedy is a radical remedy; it is to reverse your position. You have to stand not on your legs but on your head, then you will find the way to march through not confrontation but co-operation, not through separation but union, not through difference but identity. So long as you are mere human beings this supreme soul-identity cannot come. You have to forget the differences... some one asked the Mother in one of the playground talks of the Mother: how is it possible for one to forget this fundamental difference that one is a man and another a woman. Mother answered: "How do you say so? Look here, when I talk to Tara, do you think I am always considering her as a woman and talking accordingly." And she could have added: "And when I answer you do you think I am speaking to a masculine person?" I may narrate here a little incident concerning me personally. It was with regard to the question of age. When someone informed Mother that they wanted to celebrate, perhaps it was my eightieth birthday, in a magnificent manner, a gala celebration, Mother roared out: "No, no, you are spoiling my work. All the while I was trying to make him forget his age and you are trying to insist on his age." Age also is a thing to be forgotten. The birthday-celebration is not for recording the progress in our age, how we are progressing year by year in our age, that is, how we are getting old - No, it is to note the progress made in the inner being and consciousness. Each birthday is to be a landmark of the forward march of your consciousness, not the greyness of your head. The touch of your soul will inspire you not merely to do the right inner movement, the enlightening of your consciousness but also it will inspire you to do the right physical movement, even lead you to the choice of the right kind of physical exercises and do them in the right manner. The lesson to learn then is to get back to your soul inside you, you will find there everything that is worth having: freedom, joy, harmony and even untold capacity.

3.00.2 - Introduction, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  often tempted to pick out one of them as the most important and then
  exclaim by way of explanation: Of course, its nothing but...! I am

3.00 - The Magical Theory of the Universe, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  The formula of Tetragrammaton is the most important for the
  practical Magician. Here Yod = 2, H = 3, Vau = 4 to 9, H final = 10.

3.01 - Natural Morality, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  One of the most important aspects of hominization, from the
  point of view of the history of life, is the accession of bio-

3.01 - The Soul World, #Theosophy, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
  is to realize that one distinguishes the various kinds of its forms in a similar manner to that in which one distinguishes solid, liquid, air, or gaseous bodies in the physical world. In order to be able to do that it is necessary to know the two basic forces which are the most important in it. They may be called sympathy and antipathy. The order to which a soul formation belongs is decided by the manner in which these basic forces work in it. The force with which one soul formation attracts others, seeks to fuse with them, to make its affinity with them effectual, must be designated as sympathy. Antipathy, on the other hand, is the force with which soul formations repel, exclude each other in the soul world, with which they assert their separate identity. The part played in the soul world by a soul formation depends upon the proportions in which these basic forces are present in it. One has to distinguish, in the first place, between three kinds of soul formations according to the manner in which sympathy and antipathy work in them. These kinds differ from each other in that sympathy and antipathy have in them definitely fixed mutual relationships.
  p. 102

3.02 - SOL, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  [130] In view of the supreme importance of the ego in bringing reality to light, we can understand why this infinitesimal speck in the universe was personified as the sun, with all the attributes that this image implies. As the medieval mind was incomparably more alive than ours to the divine quality of the sun, we may assume that the totality character of the sun-image was implicit in all its allegorical or symbolic applications. Among the significations of the sun as totality the most important was its frequent use as a God-image, not only in pagan times but in the sphere of Christianity as well.
  [131] Although the alchemists came very close to realizing that the ego was the mysteriously elusive arcane substance and the longed-for lapis, they were not aware that with their sun symbol they were establishing an intimate connection between God and the ego. As already remarked, projection is not a voluntary act; it is a natural phenomenon beyond the interference of the conscious mind and peculiar to the nature of the human psyche. If, therefore, it is this nature that produces the sun symbol, nature herself is expressing an identity of God and ego. In that case only unconscious nature can be accused of blasphemy, but not the man who is its victim. It is the rooted conviction of the West that God and the ego are worlds apart. In India, on the other hand, their identity was taken as self-evident. It was the nature of the Indian mind to become aware of the world-creating significance of the consciousness68 manifested in man.69 The West, on the contrary, has always emphasized the littleness, weakness, and sinfulness of the ego, despite the fact that it elevated one man to the status of divinity. The alchemists at least suspected mans hidden godlikeness, and the intuition of Angelus Silesius finally expressed it without disguise.

3.02 - The Psychology of Rebirth, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  tion but a structural alteration. One of the most important
  forms is the phenomenon of possession: some content, an idea
  --
  the individual, one of the most important being the so-called
  "inferior function." This is not the place to enter into a de-

3.05 - SAL, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  [235] Owing to the theory of correspondentia, regarded as axiomatic in the Middle Ages, the principles of each of the four worlds the intelligible or divine, the heavenly, the earthly, and the infernal379corresponded to each other. Usually, however, there was a division into three worlds to correspond with the Trinity: heaven, earth, hell.380 Triads were also known in alchemy. From the time of Paracelsus the most important triad was Sulphur-Mercurius-Sal, which was held to correspond with the Trinity. Georg von Welling, the plagiarist of Johann Rudolf Glauber, still thought in 1735 that his triad of fire, sun, and salt381 was in its root entirely one thing.382 The use of the Trinity formula in alchemy is so common that further documentation is unnecessary. A subtle feature of the Sulphur-Mercurius-Sal formula is that the central figure, Mercurius, is by nature androgynous and thus partakes both of the masculine red sulphur and of the lunar salt.383 His equivalent in the celestial realm is the planetary pair Sol and Luna, and in the intelligible realm Christ in his mystical androgyny, the man encompassed by the woman,384 i.e., sponsus and sponsa (Ecclesia). Like the Trinity, the alchemical triunity is a quaternity in disguise owing to the duplicity of the central figure: Mercurius is not only split into a masculine and a feminine half, but is the poisonous dragon and at the same time the heavenly lapis. This makes it clear that the dragon is analogous to the devil and the lapis to Christ, in accordance with the ecclesiastical view of the devil as an autonomous counterpart of Christ. Furthermore, not only the dragon but the negative aspect of sulphur, namely sulphur comburens, is identical with the devil, as Glauber says: Verily, sulphur is the true black devil of hell, who can be conquered by no element save by salt alone.385 Salt by contrast is a light substance, similar to the lapis, as we shall see.
  [236] From all this we get the following schema:

3.06 - Death, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  dealings with ones partner play the most important part. Quite the reverse:
   the most important part falls to the mans dealings with the anima and the

3.0 - THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
  this regard is still the most important thing of all:--perhaps if
  metaphysics are applied to this life in the most emphatic way,--as in

3.17 - Of the License to Depart, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  deciphering ones own record.1 For this reason it is the most important
  thing to do, strictly on magical grounds. But, apart from this, it is
  --
  running round after you all the time, and the most important of all his
  functions is that of auditor. Now, if you call in an auditor to investigate a business, and when he asks for the books you tell him that you

3.18 - Of Clairvoyance and the Body of Light, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  This testing of the spirits is the most important branch of the
  whole tree of Magick. Without it, one is lost in the jungle of
  --
  The MASTER THERION has published the most important practical
  magical secrets in the plainest language. No one, by virtue of being

32.07 - The God of the Scientist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   From the standpoint of norms and. ultimate values that science brings forward, reasoning does not occupy the most important place. Science presumes to arrive at a logical conclusion from observation of facts of Nature. The advantages and benefits that we get from science are its material side. But there is another aspect of the scientific intellect which is incorporated into it as its fragrance and beauty, like that of a fruit or flower. What is that thing? Different scientists have expressed it in different ways. But all expressions centre round the same truth. Science avowedly seeks to arrive at the truth within the framework of reasoning by weighing and measuring the material limbs of Nature, confining itself strictly within the four corners of material Nature. But the one thing which, if not manifest even at the outset, has gradually blossomed and taken hold of the scientist, that has from the beginning existed as a hidden inspiration behind the veil, is the sense of a profound mystery, the touch of an infinite eternity, something inexpressible, something to be wondered at, an unmanifest that cannot be defined yet can be felt, a glimpse of a conscious existence: that has been called the supreme unity by some; others have called it the Pure Reason, yet others have called it the highest law or dispensation while there are people who prefer to call it consciousness or awareness. Such a sense and perception and. experience does not fall under the strict field of scientific research, but the scientist is surrounded, as it were, by a subtle atmosphere, a halo wherefrom proceeds his inspiration for research, for clues, for the vision of truth. Do we not see that all great scientists possess this turn of temperament, an opening, as it were, into other subtle realms? Perhaps many are merely compilers, cataloguers, but those who have discovered something genuine and have been able to unveil some secrets of Nature emanate the fragrance and radiance I speak of, beyond the reasoning faculty. When Kepler looked at the sky through his telescope to observe the course of the stars and the planets, he was deeply absorbed in the experience of something vast, infinite, strange and mysterious. Was it not then at this golden moment that it flashed like lightning through his mind that the orbits of the planets were elliptical and the Sun is at one focus of these apparent ellipses? Is not this incident as strikingly wonderful as the discovery of the law of gravitation made by Newton when he noticed an apple fall to the ground?
   In fact, it is merely a notion or a mental complex that the scientific knowledge is solely or chiefly the outcome of the reasoning process. Many of the scientists are perhaps of the opinion that it must be so, but the fact is otherwise. Discovery means the removal of a veil and that too all on a sudden. Reasoning steps in later to establish the discovery on a firm footing, at the most it makes slight alterations here and there, adds or subtracts a few necessaries, clarifies the discovery and gives precision to it. In the matter of all true knowledge and ultimate certitude the inner perception and intuition come first and what provides the major premiss to the logical syllogism is beyond reasoning.

3.20 - Of the Eucharist, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  This is the most important of all magical secrets that ever were or
  are or can be. To a Magician thus renewed the attainment of the

3.21 - Of Black Magic, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  before him. This technique of Yoga is the most important detail of
  all our work. The MASTER THERION has been himself somewhat to

33.06 - Alipore Court, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Now I am going to divulge to you yet another secret, perhaps the most important of all, concerning our life in jail. I have said that I had Sri Aurobindo's essays on the bomb slipped out of jail by handing them over to a friend. But how was this done? By what means did we carry on this kind of secret interchange with the outside world? How we could manage to import pistols into jail remained a major headache for the police. The police invented so many theories and there was no end to the conjectures indulged in by the public.
   They must have been packed in biscuit tins, or in the bellies of fish, or in jack-fruit, and what not. Finally, the Police Chief could contain himself no longer and decided to ask Kanai. Kanai was already under sentence of death and was biding his time. "Now that all is over," said the Police Chief "where is the harm if you confess it? Why not show some courage and tell us where you found the pistol?" Kanai grew serious and said in measured tones, "It is the spirit of Khudiram who gave me the revolver." Khudiram had been hanged for his attempt on the life of Kingsford.

3.3.2 - Doctors and Medicines, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  You are very much behind the times. Do you not know that even many doctors now admit and write it publicly that medicines are an element but only one and that the psychological element counts as much and even more? I have heard that from doctors often and read it over reputable medical signatures. And among the psychological elements, they say, one of the most important is the doctors optimism and self-confidence, (his faith, what? it is only another word for the same thing) and the confidence, hope, helpful mental atmosphere he can inspire in or around his patient. I have seen it stated categorically that a doctor who can do that is far more successful than one who knows Medicine better but cannot.
  ***

3.4.2 - Guru Yoga, #The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, #Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, #Buddhism
  There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path.

3-5 Full Circle, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  The Englishmen were very pleased. They declared these summer jobs the most important part of my and my friends' education. This, they said, is the best way students can come to understand working people; their lives, their problems. They condemned their own kind of vacations as sheer waste, and held that in the long run it endangers the State.
  Why these American students' summer jobs are important appears in the following little map of our school of hard knocks, the so-called "real" world. (Actually, of course, the academic world is just as real.)
  --
  "In the reaction against the practical failure of the democratic states," he goes on, "we find always that the electoral process is shut down . . . and that the executive function is taken over--more often than not with popular assent--by men with a special training and a special personal commitment to the business of ruling the state. In the enfeebled democracies the politicians have with rare exceptions been men without sure tenure of office. Many of the most important are novices, improvisers, and amateurs. After a counter-revolution has brought them down, their successors are almost certain to be the elite of the new revolutionary party, or an elite drawn from predemocratic institutions like the army, the church, and the bureaucracy. . . The post-democratic rulers are men set apart from the masses of the people. They are not set apart only because they have [and use] the power to arrest others and to shoot them. They would not long hold on to that kind of power [by itselfJ. They have also an aura of majesty, which causes them to be obeyed. That aura emanates from the popular belief [and often the fact] that they have subjected themselves to a code and are under a discipline by which they are dedicated to [and seem able to achieve] ends that transcend their personal desires and their own private lives" pp.59-60.19
  These insights, being correct, permit us to complete and sharpen Lippmann's diagnosis: the breakdown of the democracies--their executives' loss of self confidence, authority and power, and their electorates' loss of equally important power to believe in and follow the executives--is due to the break-up of what Lippman calls the public philosophy, and what poets more powerfully call the Circle.
  --
  One of the most important weapons for changing this rout into an advance is a battery of tests for accurately diagnosing each individual's genetic capabilities (keys) and matching them with the corresponding educational and professional habitats (locks) . Among the most strategic people of our time, therefore, are the psychosocial scientists who are developing such "key"-testing methods. Namely, aptitude tests, intelligence tests, personality measurements, and so forth, as described in this chapter's second part by Arthur Jensen. These efforts must be assembled and then extended to the corresponding "locks": to the educational and professional institutions in which these individuals develop their capabilities and then employ them, as outlined in Figures IV-6 and IV-7. We have the necessary components of Period 7 ecosystems. What we now need, in order to assemble them, is practical methods for spotting and finding these many different parts, and putting them together into a viable whole. Success in doing this would make our culture itself "drop out" in the upward sense: if we succeed our culture will drop out of the disintegration Groups of Period 6, and up into Period 7 (Figure IV-4); if not, it will drop down.
  What is the main obstacle to this upward development? It is the ideologies of Left and Right, described in Chapter II, whose confrontations our universities and scientific societies--warehouses of unassembled disciplines--are ever less able to resist effectively: See, for instance, "Whither United States Universities" by George E. Pake.l4
  --
  Two biology departments, being markedly different from the rest, are underlined: ecology and paleontology. They deal with whole s stems of the most important kind, natural empires. They are outstanding because, as Ulrich Sonnemann points out, A whole [system], whether encountered by the physicist or the social scientist [or the ecologist], is a lawful context which gives significance to each particular part-phenomenon that articulates itself within it; what makes its inner lawfulness understandable, however, is its own overall significance which it derives from the broader [systemic] context in which it is embedded and to which it refers." Sonnemann, who is writing on The Specialist as a Psychological Problem, then goes on to anticipate our discussion of what may be called the organized specialist and the generalist: "The true academician's [the generalist's] subject matter, in principle, becomes the universe: whatever he encounters--and it may lie in exceedingly small sectors of fieldsoccurs to him in such ways as to represent a universal order. Such a universal order, since it already determines the phenomenal structure under the scientist's observation, is inseparable from the structure."
  Sonnemann then characterizes the rest of the departments shown and implied in Figures IV-9 and 10 as follows: "To the extent, then, to which it [the whole system] drops out of sight, to the extent to which his [the specialist's] preconceived procedure interferes with the self articulation of any subject under his attack, phenomenal structure will escape, first his eye, ultimately his theories."50 These people's departments deal with sections of systems. And, as Sonnemann points out, "Implicit in all sectional science, the arbitrariness of primary determination of subj ect matters which of their own natures are universes [systems] does not, apparently, make a science any more analytical; the typical specialistic approach . . . is characterized at least as much by his blindness for relevant detail as for wholes."
  --
  With moral orientation, science has come full circle: When unified, as here, science's revelations no longer conflict with, but reinforce and expand the most important revelations of the great religions. For the value-bias of both cultures, humanistic and scientific, has now become clearly positive. A host of ancient sayings, revelations, and myths have been, and can now be mapped geometrically, and their values assessed in the unequivocal idiom of science. Conversely, large and increasing bodies of scientific findings, and of the practices they generate, can be translated into effective religious and political idioms.
  Unlike the detectors of the one-field scientific specialists, Figure IV-10, which screen out and reject most of religion's doctrines, and all its values, the detector of Unified Science, Figure VI-12, accepts the great majority of them. And more than that, it extends some, corrects some, completes some, and profoundly illuminates the whole, as the traditional religious attitude in turn illuminates, for many, Unified Science as a whole. The semi-conscious process which Toynbee groups under the general term mimesis herewith becomes the most important of technologies.
  Joseph Campbell, author of the Masks of God, points out that though not true in a literal sense, a myth is not what it is considered to be in everyday speech--a fantasy or misstatement.43 It is rather a veiled explanation of the truth. "We have seen what has happened to primitive communities unsettled by the white man's civilization," he observes. "With their old taboos discredited, they immediately go to pieces, disintegrate, and become resorts of vice and disease. Today the same thing is happening to us."

3.7.1.04 - Rebirth and Soul Evolution, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The admission of the souls existence does not of itself lead, by its own necessity, by any indispensable next step, to the acceptance of rebirth. It will only bring in this indispensable consequence if there is such a thing as a soul evolution which enforces itself always and is a constant part of the order of existence and the law of the time process. Moreover some kind of admission of an individual soul is a first condition of the truth of rebirth. For there is a plausible theory of existence which admits an All-Soul, a universal being and becoming of which the material world is some sensible result, but does not admit any at all abiding truth of our spiritual individuality. The All-Soul may continually develop, may slowly yet urgently evolve its becoming; but each individual man or apparent individual being is to this way of thinking only a moment of the All-Soul and its evolution; out of that it rises by the formation which we call birth and it sinks back into it by the dissolution which we call death. But this limiting idea can only stand if we credit a creative biological evolution and its instrument of physical heredity with the whole causation of all our mental and spiritual being; but in that case we have no real soul or spirit, our soul personality or spiritual becoming is a fruit of our life and body. Now the question of rebirth turns almost entirely upon the one fundamental question of the past of the individual being and its future. If the creation of the whole nature is to be credited to the physical birth, then the body, life and soul of the individual are only a continuation of the body, life and soul of his ancestry, and there is no room anywhere for soul rebirth. The individual man has no past being independent of them and can have no independent future; he can prolong himself in his progeny,the child may be his second or continued self, as the Upanishad puts it,but there is no other rebirth for him. No continued stream of individuality presided over by any mental or spiritual person victoriously survives the dissolution of the body. On the other hand, if there is any element in us, still more the most important of all, which cannot be so accounted for, but presupposes a past or admits a future evolution other than that of the race mind and the physical ancestry, then some kind of soul birth becomes a logical necessity.
  Now it is just here that the claims of physical and vital evolution and heredity seem to fail,as a cause of our whole mental and spiritual being. Certainly it has been shown that our body and the most physical part of our life action are very largely the results of heredity, but not in such a way as to exclude an assisting and perhaps really predominant psychical cause other than the ancestral contri bution. It has been shown if you will that our conscious vitality and those parts of mind which depend upon it, something of temperament, something of character, certain impulses and predispositions, are to a great extent shapedor is it only influenced?by evolutionary heredity; but not that they are entirely due to this force, not that there is no soul, no spiritual entity which accepts and makes use of this instrumentation, but is not its created result or helplessly subject to it in its becoming. Still more are the higher parts of our mind marked with a certain stamp of spiritual independence. They are not altogether helpless formations of evolutionary heredity. But still all these things are evidently very much under the influence of environment and its pressures and opportunities. And wemay draw from that, if we choose, a limiting conclusion; we may say that they are a phase of the universal soul, a part of the process of its evolution by selection; the race, not the individual, is the continuous factor and all our individual effort and acquisition, only in appearance, not really independent, ceases with death, except so much of our gain as is chosen to be carried on in the race by some secret will or conscious necessity in the universal being or the persistent becoming.

4.1.2 - The Difficulties of Human Nature, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Everyone whose psychic being calls him to the spiritual path has a capacity for that path and can arrive at the goal if or as soon as he develops a single-pointed will towards that alone. But also every sadhak is faced with two elements in him, the inner being which wants the Divine and the sadhana and the outer mainly vital and physical being which does not want them but remains attached to the things of the ordinary life. The mind is sometimes led by one, sometimes by the other. One of the most important things he has to do, therefore, is to decide fundamentally the quarrel between these two parts and to persuade or compel by psychic aspiration, by steadiness of the minds thought and will, by the choice of the higher vital in his emotional being the opposing elements to be first quiescent and then consenting. So long as he is not able to do that his progress must be either very slow or fluctuating and chequered as the aspiration in him cannot have a continuous action or a continuous result. Besides so long as this is so, there are likely to be periodical revolts of the vital, repining at the slow progress, despairing, desponding, declaring the Adhar unfit; calls from the old life will come; circumstances will be attracted which seem to justify it, suggestions will come from men and unseen powers pressing the sadhak away from the sadhana and pointing backward to the former life. And yet in that life he is not likely to get any real satisfaction.
  Your circumstances are not different from those of others in the beginning and for a long time afterwards. You have come away from the family life, but something in your vital has still kept a habit of response and it is that that is being used to pull you away. This is aided by the impatience of the vital because there is no rapid spiritual progress or continuous good conditionthings which even the greatest sadhaks take time to acquire. Circumstances combine to assist the pullthings like Xs illness or your husbands appeals which when he soothes and flatters and prays and promises instead of being offensive succeed in mollifying you and creating a condition of less effective defence. And there is the vital Nature and its powers suggesting this and that, that you are not fit, that there is no aspiration, that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo do not help, are displeased, do not care, and it is best to go home.

4.1.4 - Resistances, Sufferings and Falls, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There is no reason to have a vague doubt about ones own future founded upon no other ground than the failure of others. That is what X and Y are always doing, and it is a great disturber of their progress. Why not instead, if one is to go by others, gather hope from the example of those who are satisfied and progressing? It is true however that these do not show their success as the others do their failure. However, that apart, failure comes by very positive errors and not by the absence of an invariable and unflagging aspiration or effort. The effort demanded of the sadhak is that of aspiration, rejection and surrender. If these three are done, the rest is to come of itself by the grace of the Mother and the working of her force in you. But of the three the most important is surrender of which the first necessary form is trust and confidence and patience in difficulty. There is no rule that trust and confidence can only remain if aspiration is there. On the contrary when even aspiration is not there because of the pressure of inertia, trust and confidence and patience can remain. If trust and patience fail when aspiration is quiescent, that would mean that the sadhak is relying solely on his own effortit would mean, Oh my aspiration has failed, so there is no hope for me. My aspiration fails so what can Mother do? On the contrary, the sadhak should feel, Never mind, my aspiration will come back again. Meanwhile I know that the Mother is with me even when I do not feel her; she will carry me through even the darkest period. That is the fully right attitude you must have. To those who have it depression could do nothing; even if it comes, it has to return baffled. That is not tamasic surrender. Tamasic surrender is when one says, I wont do anything; let Mother do everything. Aspiration, rejection, surrender even are not necessary. Let her do all that in me. There is a great difference between the two attitudes. One is that of the shirker who wont do anything, the other is that of the sadhak who does his best but even when he is reduced to quiescence for a time and things seem adverse, keeps always his trust in the Mothers force and presence behind all and by that trust baffles the opposition force and calls back the activity of the sadhana.
  ***

4.14 - The Power of the Instruments, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The first thing the will has to do with the body is to impose on it progressively a new habit of all its being, consciousness, force and outward and inward action. It must be taught an entire passivity in the hands first of the higher instruments, but eventually in the hands of the spirit and its controlling and informing shakti. It must be accustomed not to impose its own limits on the nobler members, but to shape its action and its response to their demands, to develop, one might say, a higher notation, a higher scale of responses. At present the notation of the body and the physical consciousness has a very large determining power on the music made by this human harp of God; the notes we get from the spirit, from the psychic soul, from the greater life behind our physical life cannot come in freely, cannot develop their high, powerful and proper strain. This condition must be reversed; the body and the physical consciousness must develop the habit of admitting and shaping themselves to these higher strains and not they, but the nobler parts of the nature must determine the music of our life and being. The control of the body and life by the mind and its thought and will is the first step towards this change. All Yoga implies the carrying of that control to a very high pitch. But afterwards the mind must itself give place to the spirit, to the spiritual force, the supermind and the supramental force. And finally the body must develop a perfect power to hold whatever force is brought into it by the spirit and to contain its action without spilling and wasting it or itself getting cracked. It must be capable of being filled and powerfully used by whatever intensity of spiritual or higher mind or life force without any part of the mechanical instrument being agitated, upset, broken or damaged by the inrush or pressure, -- as the brain, vital health or moral nature are often injured in those who unwisely attempt Yogic practice without preparation or by undue means or rashly invite a power they are intellectually, vitally, morally unfit to bear, -- and, thus filled, it must have the capacity to work normally, automatically, rightly according to the will of that spiritual or other now unusual agent without distorting, diminishing or mistranslating its intention and stress. This faculty of holding, dharamasakti, in the physical consciousness, energy and machinery is the most important siddhi or perfection of the body.
  The result of these changes will be to make the body a perfect instrument of the spirit. The spiritual force will be able to do what it wills and as it wills in and through the body. It will be able to conduct an unlimited action of the mind or, at a higher stage, of the supermind without the body betraying the action by fatigue, incapacity, inaptitude or falsification. It will be able too to pour a full tide of the life-force into the body and conduct a large action and joy of the perfected vital being without that quarrel and disparity which is the relation of the normal life-instincts and life-impulses to the insufficient physical instrument they are obliged to use. And it will also be able to conduct a full action of the spiritualised psychic being not falsified, degraded or in any way marred by the lower instincts of the body and to use Physical action and expression as a free notation of the higher Psychical life. And in the body itself there will be a presence of a greatness of sustaining force, an abounding strength, energy and Puissance of outgoing and managing force, a lightness, swiftness and adaptability of the nervous and physical being, a holding and responsive power in the whole physical machine and its driving springs704 of which it is now even at its strongest and best incapable.

4.2.2 - Steps towards Overcoming Difficulties, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  If one part of you keeps its quietude the inner being then the rest can be dealt with. So not to allow the vital to be upset and the disturbance cover up the inner self, that is the most important thing. Keep up the rejection always.
  ***

4.2.5.01 - Psychisation and Spiritualisation, #Letters On Yoga III, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  I have read your account of your sadhana. There is nothing to say, I think, - for it is all right - except that the most important thing for you is to develop the psychic fire in the heart and the aspiration for the psychic being to come forward as the leader of the sadhana. When the psychic does so, it will show you the
  "undetected ego-knots" of which you speak and loosen them or burn them in the psychic fire. This psychic development and the psychic change of mind, vital and physical consciousness is of the utmost importance because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation without which the supramental must always remain far distant. Powers etc. have their place, but a very minor one so long as this is not done.

4.4.1.03 - Both Ascent and Descent Necessary, #Letters On Yoga III, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  In the physical consciousness the descent is the most important.
  Something of the subtle physical can always go up - but the

6.02 - STAGES OF THE CONJUNCTION, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  [677] The second step on the way to the production of this substance was the reunion of the spirit with the body. For this procedure there were many symbols. One of the most important was the chymical marriage, which took place in the retort. The older alchemists were still so unconscious of the psychological implications of the opus that they understood their own symbols as mere allegories orsemioticallyas secret names for chemical combinations, thus stripping mythology, of which they made such copious use, of its true meaning and using only its terminology. Later this was to change, and already in the fourteenth century it began to dawn on them that the lapis was more than a chemical compound. This realization expressed itself mainly in the Christ-parallel.66 Dorn was probably the first to recognize the psychological implications for what they were, so far as this was intellectually possible for a man of that age. Proof of this is his demand that the pupil must have a good physical and, more particularly, a good moral constitution.67 A religious attitude was essential.68 For in the individual was hidden that substance of celestial nature known to very few, the incorrupt medicament which can be freed from its fetters, not by its contrary but by its like. The spagyric medicine whereby it is freed must be conformable to this substance. The medicine prepares the body so that the separation can be undertaken. For, when the body is prepared, it can be separated more easily from the other parts.
  [678] Like all alchemists, Dorn naturally did not reveal what the spagyric medicine was. One can only suppose that it was thought of as physical, more or less. At the same time he says that a certain asceticism is desirable, and this may be a reference to the moral nature of the mysterious panacea. At any rate he hastens to add that the assiduous reader will thenceforth advance from the meditative philosophy to the spagyric and thence to the true and perfect wisdom. It sounds as if the assiduous reader had been engaged at the outset in reading and meditating, and as if the medicine and the preparation of the body consisted precisely in that.69 Just as for Paracelsus the right theoria was part of the panacea, so for the alchemists was the symbol, which expresses the unconscious projections. Indeed, it is these that make the substance magically effective, and for this reason they cannot be separated from the alchemical procedure whose integral components they are.

6.06 - SELF-KNOWLEDGE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  [710] When meditation is concerned with the objective products of the unconscious that reach consciousness spontaneously, it unites the conscious with contents that proceed not from a conscious causal chain but from an essentially unconscious process. We cannot know what the unconscious psyche is, otherwise it would be conscious. We can only conjecture its existence, though there are good enough grounds for this. Part of the unconscious contents is projected, but the projection as such is not recognized. Meditation or critical introspection and objective investigation of the object are needed in order to establish the existence of projections. If the individual is to take stock of himself it is essential that his projections should be recognized, because they falsify the nature of the object and besides this contain items which belong to his own personality and should be integrated with it. This is one of the most important phases in the wearisome process of self-knowledge. And since projections involve one in an inadmissible way in externalities, Dorn rightly recommends an almost ascetic attitude to the world, so that the soul may be freed from its involvement in the world of the body. Here only the spirit can help it, that is, the drive for knowledge of the self, on a plane beyond all the illusion and bemusement caused by projection.
  [711] The unio mentalis, then, in psychological as well as in alchemical language, means knowledge of oneself. In contradistinction to the modern prejudice that self-knowledge is nothing but a knowledge of the ego, the alchemists regarded the self as a substance incommensurable with the ego, hidden in the body, and identical with the image of God.129 This view fully accords with the Indian idea of purusha-atman.130 The psychic preparation of the magisterium as described by Dorn is therefore an attempt, uninfluenced by the East, to bring about a union of opposites in accordance with the great Eastern philosophies, and to establish for this purpose a principle freed from the opposites and similar to the atman or tao. Dorn called this the substantia coelestis, which today we would describe as a transcendental principle. This unum is nirdvandva (free from the opposites), like the atman (self).

6.0 - Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  put the most important points in italics. It is clear from the
  quotations what the lightning meant to Bohme and what sort
  --
  sign for cinnabar, the most important quicksilver ore (HgS). 33
  The coincidence of the two symbols can hardly be accidental in
  --
  garnet. Gold Q, after mercury the most important "philosophi-
  cal" substance, shares its sign with what is known as "regulus"
  --
  scious would only be satisfied with the most important position
  at the top and in the middle in direct contrast to the picture

7 - Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  But above all it is the soul's state that is the most important
  thing. It is these scattered elements that serve as stepping-
  --
  skill, but it is uninteresting, soulless. the most important
  thing, not only in music, but in all human creations, in

9.99 - Glossary, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
    Sushumna: Sushumna, Ida, and Pingala are the three prominent nadis, or nerves, among the innumerable nerves in the nervous system. Of these, again, the Sushumna is the most important, being the point of harmony of the other two and lying, as it does, between them. The Ida is on the left side, and the Pingala is on the right. The Sushumna, through which the awakened spiritual energy rises, is described as the Brahmavartman or Pathway to Brahman. The Ida and Pingala are outside the spine; the Sushumna is situated within the spinal column and extends from the base of the spine to the brain. See Kundalini.
    Svadhisthana: The second centre in the Sushumna. See Kundalini.

Aeneid, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Diome'des son of Tydeus; one of the most important Greek chieftains at Troy. The Iliad tells how he wounded Ares and
  Aphrodite. He captured the famous swift horses of Aeneas and

BOOK II. -- PART I. ANTHROPOGENESIS., #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  established the most important sanctuaries." This was before the great Pyramid epoch, and when Egypt
  had hardly arisen from the waters. Yet "they possessed the hieroglyphic form of writing special to the
  --
  worlds; accompanying the statements proffered with the most important demonstrations of the same in
  esoteric Astronomy and Symbolism.

BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  find, however, the most important one, masons evidently not knowing it.
  [[Vol. 2, Page]] 557 THE PRIMITIVE CROSS
  --
  metaphysicians and Vedantic scholars says of it: -"The real esoteric seven-fold classification is one of the most important, if not the most important
  classification, which has received its arrangement from the mysterious constitution of this eternal

BOOK I. -- PART I. COSMIC EVOLUTION, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  known that the most important Buddhist tracts belonging to the sacred canon were stored away in
  countries and places inaccessible to the European pundits, the late Swami Dayan and Sarasvati, the
  --
  As may be judged, however, from the most important, as the best known of the Rosicrucians' symbols,
  there is one which has never been hitherto understood even by modern mystics. It is that of the
  --
  (c) Fohat, being one of the most, if not the most important character in esoteric Cosmogony, should be
  minutely described. As in the oldest Grecian Cosmogony, differing widely from the later mythology,

BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  claim. A poor "God" he, who would work upon minor details and leave the most important to
  secondary forces! The poverty of the argument and logic in this case, is surpassed only by that of
  --
  all the most important religious festivals of that country, the origin of which religious ceremonies goes
  back into the night of time at least 3,000 B.C., as the lecturer tried to demonstrate. The Zodiac of the

BOOK I. -- PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  names in towns and provinces." Some of the most important, however, will be shown in their order.
  One thing is thus undeniably proven. The more one studies their Hierarchies and finds out their

Book of Imaginary Beings (text), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  In the most important of Kabbalistic works, the Zohar or
  Book of Splendour, we read that these four beasts are called

ENNEAD 01.03 - Of Dialectic, or the Means of Raising the Soul to the Intelligible World., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01, #Plotinus, #Christianity
  6. Dialectics, therefore, is only one part of philosophy, but the most important. Indeed, philosophy has other branches. First, it studies nature (in physics), therein employing dialectics, as the other arts employ arithmetic, though philosophy owes far more to dialectics. Then philosophy treats of morals, and here again it is dialectics that ascertains the principles; ethics limits itself to building good habits thereon, and to propose the exercises that shall produce those good habits. The (Aristotelian) rational virtues also owe to dialectics the principles which seem to be their characteristics; for they chiefly deal with material things (because they moderate the passions). The other virtues351 also imply the application of reason to the passions and actions which are characteristic of each of them. However, prudence applies reason to them in a superior manner. Prudence deals rather with the universal, considering whether the virtues concatenate, and whether an action should be done now, or be deferred, or be superseded by another352 (as thought Aristotle). Now it is dialectics, or its resultant science of wisdom which, under a general and immaterial form, furnishes prudence with all the principles it needs.
  275

ENNEAD 04.03 - Psychological Questions., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02, #Plotinus, #Christianity
  We have thus succeeded in establishing the most important point of the discussion, namely, that all397 souls proceed from a single Soul, that from being one they become manifold, as is the case with the intelligences, divided in the same way, and similarly undivided. The Soul that dwells in the intelligible world is the one and indivisible reason (born) of intelligence, and from this Soul proceed the particular immaterial "reasons," in the same manner as on high (the individual intelligences proceed from the one and absolute Intelligence).
  WHY SHOULD CREATION BE PREDICATED OF THE UNIVERSAL SOUL AND NOT OF THE HUMAN?

ENNEAD 04.06a - Of Sensation and Memory., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03, #Plotinus, #Christianity
  In general the sensation of sight consists of perception of the visible object, and by sight we attain it in830 the place where the object is placed before our eyes, as if the perception operated in that very place, and as if the soul saw outside of herself. This occurs, I think, without any image being produced nor producing itself outside of the soul, without the soul receiving any impression similar to that imparted by the seal to the wax. Indeed, if the soul already in herself possessed the image of the visible object, the mere possession of this image (or type) would free her from the necessity of looking outside of herself. The calculation of the distance of the object's location, and visibility proves that the soul does not within herself contain the image of the object. In this case, as the object would not be distant from her, the soul would not see it as located at a distance. Besides, from the image she would receive from within herself, the soul could not judge of the size of the object, or even determine whether it possessed any magnitude at all. For instance, taking as an example the sky, the image which the soul would develop of it would not be so great (as it is, when the soul is surprised at the sky's extent). Besides, there is a further objection, which is the most important of all. If we perceive only the images of the objects we see, instead of seeing the objects themselves, we would see only their appearances or adumbrations. Then the realities would differ from the things that we see. The true observation that we cannot discern an object placed upon the pupil, though we can see it at some little distance, applies with greater cogency to the soul. If the image of the visible object be located within her, she will not see the object that yields her this image. We have to distinguish two things, the object seen, and the seeing subject; consequently, the subject that sees the visible object must be distinct from it, and see it as located elsewhere than within itself. The primary condition of the act of vision therefore is, not that the831 image of the object be located in the soul, but that it be located outside of the soul.
  SENSATIONS ARE NOT EXPERIENCES, BUT RELATIVE ACTUALIZATIONS.

ENNEAD 06.02 - The Categories of Plotinos., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03, #Plotinus, #Christianity
  7. What and how much can be seen in the soul? Since we have found in the soul both being and life, and as both being and life are what is common in every soul, and as life resides in intelligence, recognizing that there is (besides the soul and her being) intelligence and its life, we shall posit as a genus what is common in all life; namely, movement; consequently, being and movement, which constitute primary life, will be our first two categories. Although (in reality) they fuse, they are distinguished by thought, which is incapable of approaching unity exclusively; and whose exercise compels this distinction. Besides, it is possible, you can, in other objects, clearly see essence, as distinct from movement or life, although their essence be not real, and only shadowy or figurative.306 Just as the image of a man lacks several things, and, among others, the most important, life; likewise, the essence of sense-objects is only an adumbration of the veritable essence, lacking as it does the highest degree of essence, namely, vitality, which appears in its archetype. So you see it is quite easy to distinguish, on one hand, essence from life, and, on the other, life from essence. Essence is a genus, and contains several species; now movement must not be subsumed under essence, nor be posited within essence, but should be903 equated with essence. When we locate movement within essence, it is not that we consider life is the subject of movement, but because movement is life's actualization; only in thought can either exist separately. These two natures, therefore, form but a single one; for essence exists not in potentiality, but in actualization; and if we conceive of these two genera as separated from each other it will still be seen that movement is within essence, and essence within movement. In the unity of essence, the two elements, when considered separately, imply each other reciprocally; but thought affirms their duality, and shows that each of the two series is a double unity.
  ANOTHER GENUS IS STABILITY, WHICH IS ONLY ANOTHER KIND OF MOVEMENT.

ENNEAD 06.05 - The One and Identical Being is Everywhere Present In Its Entirety.345, #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
  Punning has of course a hoary antiquity, and even the revered Plato was an adept at itas we see in his Cratylos. Moreover, not till a man's work is translated can we uncover all the unconscious cases of "undistributed middle." Nevertheless, in an inquiry as to the permanent objective validity of a train of reasoning, we are compelled to note extent and scope of his tendency. So he puns on aeons;753 on science and knowledge;754 on "agalmata";755 on Aphrodite, as "delicate";756 on Being;757 on "koros," as creation or adornment";758 on difference in others;759 on idea;760 on heaven, world, universe, animal and all;761 on Vesta, and standing;762 on Hexis;763 on inclination;764 on doxa;765 on love and vision;766 on "einai" and "henos;"767 on "mous," "nosis," and to "nofon";768 on paschein;769 on Poros;770 on Prometheus and Providence;771 on reason and characteristic;772 on "schesis" and "schema";773 and "soma" and "sozesthai";"774 on suffering;1331775 on thinking, thinkable, and intellection;776 on "timely" and "sovereign."777 It will be noted that these puns refer to some of the most important conceptions, and are found in all periods of his life. We must therefore conclude that his was not a clear thinking ability; that he depended on accidental circumstances, and may not always have been fully conscious how far he was following others. This popular judgment that he was revamping Numenius's work may then not have been entirely unfounded, as we indeed have shown.
  Nevertheless, he achieved some permanent work, that will never be forgotten; for instance:

Gorgias, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Follow me then, and I will lead you where you will be happy in life and after death, as the argument shows. And never mind if some one despises you as a fool, and insults you, if he has a mind; let him strike you, by Zeus, and do you be of good cheer, and do not mind the insulting blow, for you will never come to any harm in the practice of virtue, if you are a really good and true man. When we have practised virtue together, we will apply ourselves to politics, if that seems desirable, or we will advise about whatever else may seem good to us, for we shall be better able to judge then. In our present condition we ought not to give ourselves airs, for even on the most important subjects we are always changing our minds; so utterly stupid are we! Let us, then, take the argument as our guide, which has revealed to us that the best way of life is to practise justice and every virtue in life and death. This way let us go; and in this exhort all men to follow, not in the way to which you trust and in which you exhort me to follow you; for that way, Callicles, is nothing worth.

Liber 46 - The Key of the Mysteries, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
   of my "grimoire," the first, the most important, that which bore the
   autograph of the spirit; and, since then, he no longer appears when I
  --
     Thus, then, to those who ask us, "What is the most important agent
     of miracles?" we shall reply ---

r1912 01 17, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The progress of the siddhi today was greatly curbed by another attack of the asiddhi, but the asiddhi has no longer much power over the mind and feelings; all it can do is to affect the sraddha, obscure hamper or suspend the siddhis of the third chatusthaya and bring about some reaction in the fourth.During the morning remnants of sleep-tendency and some lowering of the elementary utthapana helped the asiddhi. Walking from 9 to 12.10. Samadhi in the afternoon, very deep and full of all kinds of drishti & lipi, but very confused and only towards the end sometimes helped by vijnana activity. Walked from 5.20 to 8.20. The utthapana does not fail, but is not intense and powerful as before. There is no positive weariness, but in the afternoon there was a general depression of activity. During the exertion pain & stiffness do not show themselves or very slightly, nor even afterwards, only when the exertion has been suspended for some time. Their hold even when manifest is not great. Occasionally they fill the sukshma body & manifest if there is a pause in the activity.Roga was strong today, nevertheless it yields to the aishwaryam without being removed entirely. The activity is excess of vayu with a slight element of tejasic, jalamaya & parthiva action, but the results are dull and feeble compared with former manifestations. Other rogas can no longer make any impression on the system. Ananda of the nature of rati is becoming stable & permanent even in condition & event, as well as in all vishaya, action, movement etc. The personality is now habitually manifest in all things and persons; but is not always remembered. Trikaldrishti was largely inhibited, but reappeared towards the close of the day without recovering complete exactitude except occasionally. Assurance of safety given from outside. the most important development was the confirmation of raudrananda, pain being now invariably attended with pleasure. Formerly only the dull kinds of pain had this attribute, but now it has extended to those which are acute, although the intensity has not yet gone in experience beyond a certain degree. This development has been persistently predicted recently by the ever recurrent rupa of the bee, wasp or hornet. Rupas are now often distinct, stable & perfect on the background as well as in the akasha, but have not advanced otherwise. Sleep 11.45 to 6.45
   ***

r1912 07 01, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   Agni is the Tapas (Chit-tattwa in energy) & the activity of the tapas is the most important siddhi now in progressan activity born of a fire purified from rajas. The disappearance of rajasic tendency is now being finally [effected]1 (the tamasic still lasts), even the last dust of it in the annamaya environment is being swept up and out. This purified tapas is that to be contained by the jnani in me. But in addition the tapas born of devotional self-dedication is needed, especially, by the karmi the first belongs to the realisation of the nirgun sad Brahman, the second to the conception of universal Narayana. The first by itself makes for Sannyasa, the second for divine activity. The reference is to the passing away of the mere sannyasochita bhava in its last remnants at the end of June, the fulfilment of tyaga, the passing beyond the limitations of the sadhan of the Gita to the sadhan of the Veda. It is true this had already been effected in essence, but the last tendencies in the annamaya mind to the sanskaras of asceticism & mere renunciation have only now expired.
   (2)        Brihad Aranyaka.

r1912 07 22, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   the most important & decisive results were in the second and sixth chatusthayas. The Mahakali bhava in Mahasaraswati continent, after being clouded for some time, finally revealed itself as perfectly established and is developing the permanent ugrata, ishwarabhava etc; the ishwarabhava is tending to become independent of the results of activity & to consist in the force & confidence of the activity itself and of the personality manifesting. But also in the trikaldrishti sruti is insisting on self-justification and increasing the self-existent faith which is independent of the misleading twists & turns of immediate result & event. The Mahalakshmi bhava, hitherto absent, is now tending to appear. At first it replaced momentarily the Mahakali which it is intended only to colour without altering its character, afterwards it tended to bring the Mahalaxmi-Mahasaraswati combinations, but eventually it has subordinated itself to the proper Chandibhava. The Mahakali bhava tends to be weakened, but no longer blotted out by the old sanskaras in conversation & after sleep; but it is no longer replaced by Maheshwari-Mahasaraswati, but by an improperly combined quadruple bhava. The Maheshwari (Gauri) pratistha is still too prominent, because the habit of exciting mental tapas, against which the pratistha is an insurance, still lingers, though weakly, as a habit that always revives with the advent of Mahakali. The permanent realisation of the fourfold Brahman is final. The activity of shuddhi, mukti, bhukti is now final in all their parts, though not yet consummate; only the siddhi remains and this is being rapidly brought forward. It is still chiefly hampered in the karma proper to Mahakali & in the outward fulfilment of kama.
   ***

r1912 12 25, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The siddhi is in a depressed condition and unable to advance with rapidity, owing to the necessity of a farther transition of considerable magnitude consisting (1) in satyam, the cessation of all intellectual (manomaya) activity & its replacement by the karana, (2) the cessation of the relics of self-action & replacement by the divine action (dasya), (3) the cessation of the use of means in the yogasiddhi and its replacement by the self-fulfilment of the Para shakti working upon the lower. The public news (eg the attack on the Viceroy, the ill-success of the Turkish naval sortie) show that the Power is still ineffective to prevent adverse occurrences.([Written] Dec 26.) During the rest of the day there was a struggle between the new system and the dregs of the old. The lipi became permanently active, but the old difficulty of manifestation or emergence in the sthula akasha is not yet overcome. At the same time interpreting power attending the lipi became swift and decisive and has so remained. Trikaldrishti in all its parts resumed its activity. the most important result is the final completion of the dasya & the disappearance of all questioning, revolts or self-action; for, whenever these try to manifest, they find no support in the Jiva. Even with regard to error, there is no revolt nor now any return to a tamasic udasinata. The siddhi now fulfils itself entirely by the divine action arranging the conflicting forces & the Jiva does not try to interfere or insist on a consistent method. By this the invading intellectual activity has become wholly discouraged and no longer insists on its own action. There is, however, a survival of manomaya suggestions representing themselves as vani & seeking to lay down the action, but as these are always falsified & the Jiva does not insist on them, they have no force of persistence.Health is undergoing a very serious assault. The sore-throat was flung off, but after a long struggle cough materialised for a very short time at night, & strenuous efforts are made to bring back cold. Tejasic disturbance in the stomach has returned & recurs, though it does not persist against the Will, & there was in the morning a copious visrishti quite of the old type. This is the result of copious eating & drinking without regard to satiety, which has been insisted on in order that [ ]1 the arogya may be established under more arduous conditions. Assimilation is powerful, but not enough to prevent a struggle & irregular workings of the asiddhi. There was no primary utthapana in the afternoon, so todays period amounted only to 10 hours but there was 5 hours continuously from 4.30 to 9.35 without fatigue or subsequent reaction. Sleep 7 hours.
   MS that

r1913 12 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The result of the last three days movement has been to transfer all the movements of mind normally to the ideality, to establish the truth (satyam) of all telepathies & arrange for the ritam, to increase the strength of the telepathic trikaldrishti & justify all movements of tejas & tapas as satyam, but not as ritam. The ritam is especially uncertain in essential trikaldrishti & this uncertainty leads to frequent relapse and an occasional & fragmentary play of the intellect. Power is greatly increased & always produces some kind of effect, even often the exact effect, but owing to the surviving strength of the resistance fails often of its specific purpose, is insufficient in finality and, even producing specific & final effects, does it with effort, waverings in the object, variations from the settled arrangement. This is the case even in the field of experiment & in the karma of life these defects are much more pronounced; there also the trikaldrishti is still rudimentary. As a result sraddha in the karmasiddhi has failed to establish itself. There is faith in the rapidity of the vijnanasiddhi, especially now that the rupa & samadhi grow with an increasing pressure on the objective akash & the physical system; faith in the physical siddhi, but not a settled faith in its rapidity; no faith, except the ideal sraddha, in the most important part of the karmasiddhi on which all the rest depends.
   Utthapana of the neck raised & medial position, with support for the back, one hour; the last half way with pressure of ananima on the muscles of the neck. Utthapana of the left leg, horizontal, side position, fifteen minutes, with stress of ananima on the sinew kept out by the Will.

r1914 05 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   the most important result of the day was the progress in the expulsion of the tamas from the body. Veda IX. 1 - 5, 11 to 53, were read & annotated in less than 3 hours (the first five taking one hour) without any more than a slight eventual fatigue of the bodily parts, but no failure of the rapid & luminous faculty in the brain. The continuance of this force & pravritti has now to be assured.
   For some time past there has been a fixed movement towards minimising evacuation, limited to twice in the day for the jala; for the other, there is no fixed time or proportion, but the movement is yet imperfect. The Arogya seems to be partially asserting itself in the most external parts of the body & prana where the roga had recently asserted itself with some force & great obstinacy.

Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (text), #Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  at sun-rise and sun-set. the most important part of it is the meditation on Gayatri (Rig Veda, III. 62. 10),
  the greatest Mantra of the Vedas. Pranava or 'Om' the mystic sound symbol of God, is prefixed to this

Sophist, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Agreeing in the truth of the third hypothesis, that some things have communion and others not, and that some may have communion with all, let us examine the most important kinds which are capable of admixture; and in this way we may perhaps find out a sense in which not-being may be affirmed to have being. Now the highest kinds are being, rest, motion; and of these, rest and motion exclude each other, but both of them are included in being; and again, they are the same with themselves and the other of each other. What is the meaning of these words, 'same' and 'other'? Are there two more kinds to be added to the three others? For sameness cannot be either rest or motion, because predicated both of rest and motion; nor yet being; because if being were attri buted to both of them we should attri bute sameness to both of them. Nor can other be identified with being; for then other, which is relative, would have the absoluteness of being. Therefore we must assume a fifth principle, which is universal, and runs through all things, for each thing is other than all other things. Thus there are five principles: (1) being, (2) motion, which is not (3) rest, and because participating both in the same and other, is and is not (4) the same with itself, and is and is not (5) other than the other. And motion is not being, but partakes of being, and therefore is and is not in the most absolute sense. Thus we have discovered that not-being is the principle of the other which runs through all things, being not excepted. And 'being' is one thing, and 'not-being' includes and is all other things. And not-being is not the opposite of being, but only the other. Knowledge has many branches, and the other or difference has as many, each of which is described by prefixing the word 'not' to some kind of knowledge. The not-beautiful is as real as the beautiful, the not-just as the just. And the essence of the not-beautiful is to be separated from and opposed to a certain kind of existence which is termed beautiful. And this opposition and negation is the not-being of which we are in search, and is one kind of being. Thus, in spite of Parmenides, we have not only discovered the existence, but also the nature of not-beingthat nature we have found to be relation. In the communion of different kinds, being and other mutually interpenetrate; other is, but is other than being, and other than each and all of the remaining kinds, and therefore in an infinity of ways 'is not.' And the argument has shown that the pursuit of contradictions is childish and useless, and the very opposite of that higher spirit which criticizes the words of another according to the natural meaning of them. Nothing can be more unphilosophical than the denial of all communion of kinds. And we are fortunate in having established such a communion for another reason, because in continuing the hunt after the Sophist we have to examine the nature of discourse, and there could be no discourse if there were no communion. For the Sophist, although he can no longer deny the existence of not-being, may still affirm that not-being cannot enter into discourse, and as he was arguing before that there could be no such thing as falsehood, because there was no such thing as not-being, he may continue to argue that there is no such thing as the art of image-making and phantastic, because not-being has no place in language. Hence arises the necessity of examining speech, opinion, and imagination.
  And first concerning speech; let us ask the same question about words which we have already answered about the kinds of being and the letters of the alphabet: To what extent do they admit of combination? Some words have a meaning when combined, and others have no meaning. One class of words describes action, another class agents: 'walks,' 'runs,' 'sleeps' are examples of the first; 'stag,' 'horse,' 'lion' of the second. But no combination of words can be formed without a verb and a noun, e.g. 'A man learns'; the simplest sentence is composed of two words, and one of these must be a subject. For example, in the sentence, 'Theaetetus sits,' which is not very long, 'Theaetetus' is the subject, and in the sentence 'Theaetetus flies,' 'Theaetetus' is again the subject. But the two sentences differ in quality, for the first says of you that which is true, and the second says of you that which is not true, or, in other words, attri butes to you things which are not as though they were. Here is false discourse in the shortest form. And thus not only speech, but thought and opinion and imagination are proved to be both true and false. For thought is only the process of silent speech, and opinion is only the silent assent or denial which follows this, and imagination is only the expression of this in some form of sense. All of them are akin to speech, and therefore, like speech, admit of true and false. And we have discovered false opinion, which is an encouraging sign of our probable success in the rest of the enquiry.
  --
  STRANGER: the most important of all the genera are those which we were just now mentioningbeing and rest and motion.
  THEAETETUS: Yes, by far.

Talks With Sri Aurobindo 1, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  But the most important thing is to get rid of fear.
  NIRODBARAN: But how is one to get rid of it?
  --
  We learnt that N. R. Sarkar had resigned. So the talk centered on that, it being the most important news of the day. Purani suggested that he may now
  join the Hindu Mahasabha and do something against the Bengal ministry.
  --
  SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, his cat is the most important thing for him?
  PURANI: His wife also is occupying his attention. She is worried because of

Talks With Sri Aurobindo 2, #Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
  DR. MANILAL: Yes, the most important.
  SRI AUROBINDO: That we half observe for instance, the killing of mosquitoes and bugs is allowed!

The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
  Galton proved, or thought he could prove, that the most important
  element in genius was simply an exceptionally high degree of the all-
  --
  aptitudes' the most important was what he called 'fluency* that is,
  'an unusual and spontaneous flow of images and ideas': the creative
  --
  consequences. the most important among these is that quite fre-
  quently our emotions are incapable of keeping step with our reason
  --
  with considerations of play has risen to the most important objects of
  human knowledge.' Thus at the very start of our inquiry we hit on a
  --
  in the second half of the second year, it 'makes the most important
  discovery of its whole life that everything has a name 9 . 23 As far as one
  --
  One of the most important features of these turning points in
  experimental development is that they very often introduce methods
  --
  number of routine inquiries. the most important feature of original
  experimental thinking is the discovery of overlap and agreement
  --
  Indeed, some of the most important discoveries consisted in the
  236 THE ACT OF CREATION
  --
  derived from the most important sense organ, carries a special emotive
  appeal; the 'picture-strip' language of concrete imagery pre-dates

Theaetetus, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  c. But the knowledge of the mind is not to any great extent derived from the observation of the individual by himself. It is the growing consciousness of the human race, embodied in language, acknowledged by experience, and corrected from time to time by the influence of literature and philosophy. A great, perhaps the most important, part of it is to be found in early Greek thought. In the Theaetetus of Plato it has not yet become fixed: we are still stumbling on the threshold. In Aristotle the process is more nearly completed, and has gained innumerable abstractions, of which many have had to be thrown away because relative only to the controversies of the time. In the interval between Thales and Aristotle were realized the distinctions of mind and body, of universal and particular, of infinite and infinitesimal, of idea and phenomenon; the class conceptions of faculties and virtues, the antagonism of the appetites and the reason; and connected with this, at a higher stage of development, the opposition of moral and intellectual virtue; also the primitive conceptions of unity, being, rest, motion, and the like. These divisions were not really scientific, but rather based on popular experience. They were not held with the precision of modern thinkers, but taken all together they gave a new existence to the mind in thought, and greatly enlarged and more accurately defined man's knowledge of himself and of the world. The majority of them have been accepted by Christian and Western nations. Yet in modern times we have also drifted so far away from Aristotle, that if we were to frame a system on his lines we should be at war with ordinary language and untrue to our own consciousness. And there have been a few both in mediaeval times and since the Reformation who have rebelled against the Aristotelian point of view. Of these eccentric thinkers there have been various types, but they have all a family likeness. According to them, there has been too much analysis and too little synthesis, too much division of the mind into parts and too little conception of it as a whole or in its relation to God and the laws of the universe. They have thought that the elements of plurality and unity have not been duly adjusted. The tendency of such writers has been to allow the personality of man to be absorbed in the universal, or in the divine nature, and to deny the distinction between matter and mind, or to substitute one for the other. They have broken some of the idols of Psychology: they have challenged the received meaning of words: they have regarded the mind under many points of view. But though they may have shaken the old, they have not established the new; their views of philosophy, which seem like the echo of some voice from the East, have been alien to the mind of Europe.
  d. The Psychology which is found in common language is in some degree verified by experience, but not in such a manner as to give it the character of an exact science. We cannot say that words always correspond to facts. Common language represents the mind from different and even opposite points of view, which cannot be all of them equally true (compare Cratylus). Yet from diversity of statements and opinions may be obtained a nearer approach to the truth than is to be gained from any one of them. It also tends to correct itself, because it is gradually brought nearer to the common sense of mankind. There are some leading categories or classifications of thought, which, though unverified, must always remain the elements from which the science or study of the mind proceeds. For example, we must assume ideas before we can analyze them, and also a continuing mind to which they belong; the resolution of it into successive moments, which would say, with Protagoras, that the man is not the same person which he was a minute ago, is, as Plato implies in the Theaetetus, an absurdity.
  --
  Its sphere is supposed to be narrowed to the individual soul; but it cannot be thus separated in fact. It goes back to the beginnings of things, to the first growth of language and philosophy, and to the whole science of man. There can be no truth or completeness in any study of the mind which is confined to the individual. The nature of language, though not the whole, is perhaps at present the most important element in our knowledge of it. It is not impossible that some numerical laws may be found to have a place in the relations of mind and matter, as in the rest of nature. The old Pythagorean fancy that the soul 'is or has in it harmony' may in some degree be realized. But the indications of such numerical harmonies are faint; either the secret of them lies deeper than we can discover, or nature may have rebelled against the use of them in the composition of men and animals. It is with qualitative rather than with quantitative differences that we are concerned in Psychology. The facts relating to the mind which we obtain from Physiology are negative rather than positive. They show us, not the processes of mental action, but the conditions of which when deprived the mind ceases to act. It would seem as if the time had not yet arrived when we can hope to add anything of much importance to our knowledge of the mind from the investigations of the microscope. The elements of Psychology can still only be learnt from reflections on ourselves, which interpret and are also interpreted by our experience of others. The history of language, of philosophy, and religion, the great thoughts or inventions or discoveries which move mankind, furnish the larger moulds or outlines in which the human mind has been cast. From these the individual derives so much as he is able to comprehend or has the opportunity of learning.
  THEAETETUS

The Anapanasati Sutta A Practical Guide to Mindfullness of Breathing and Tranquil Wisdom Meditation, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  This simple statement is the most important part of the
  meditation instructions. It instructs one to notice the
  --
  (meditation stages). It also says that the most important
  feeling among these feelings is the in and out breath. This is
  --
  relaxing is the most important and major step that the
  Buddha discovered, this and the Fourth Noble Truth- that is

The Dwellings of the Philosophers, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  This symbol, seemingly very obscure, hides nevertheless the most important of the secondary
  arcane. We shall even affirm that for not being cognizant of this point of doctrine and also
  --
  regarded as the most important, is also the most difficult to obtain in the practice of the Work.
  Its usefulness is such that the science itself owes its name, hence hermetic philosophy is based
  --
  language through which the sages intend to reveal the first and the most important of the
  Works operations. In truth, it is not the person of the alchemist who defies and fights the

the Eternal Wisdom, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  2) One of the most important precepts of wisdom is to know oneself. ~ Socrates
  3) There is nothing greater than the practice of the precept which says, "Know thyself". ~ Antoine the Healer
  --
  11) The observations and reckonings of astronomers have taught us many surprising things, but the most important result of their studies is, undoubtedly, that they reveal to us the abyss of our ignorance. ~ Kant
  12) There is no fact in Science which may not tomorrow be turned into ridicule...The very hopes of man, the thoughts of his heart, the religions of the peoples, the customs and ethics of humanity are all at the mercy of a new generalisation. The generalisation is always a new current of the divine in the spirit. ~ Emerson
  --
  16) A sage was asked, "What is the most important work? who is the man the most important in life ?" The sage replied, the most important work is to love all men, because that is the life-work of each man. the most important man is the one with whom you have to do at this moment, because you can never know whether you will have to do with another. ~ Tolstoi
  17) It is impossible to compel oneself to the love of others. One can only reject that which prevents love; and that which prevents is the love of one's material I. ~ Tolstoi

The Gold Bug, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  "We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the parchment, as unriddled. Here it is:
  'A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.'"

The Gospel According to Mark, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
  Peter's confession of faith in Mark 8:27 that "You are the Messiah" marks a transition in the Gospel. The first half of the Gospel discovers the identity of Jesus through his actions; at this turning point, one learns about his true mission, his suffering and glory through his Death and Resurrection. There are three predictions of his passion, death on the Cross, and that he will rise again after three days: the first in 8:31, that "the Son of Man must suffer," identifying himself as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 52-53. The second prediction occurs in 9:31, and the third in 10:33-34, as Jesus and his disciples leave for Jerusalem. Jesus follows each of his three predictions with three statements on discipleship. The Lord defines discipleship as self-denial in Mark 8:34 - Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Discipleship is described as service in Mark 9:35 and 10:43-44. 10:45 is one of the most important sayings in the Gospel, for Jesus gives the purpose of his Messianic mission - "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."
  When asked which is the greatest commandment, Jesus cites the Shema prayer of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 - "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." Jesus continues, "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:29-31).

The Library Of Babel 2, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
  of its tragic consequences, is perhaps the most important event in all his
  tory), I wish to recall a few axioms.

Timaeus, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Pleasure and pain are the most important of the affections common to the whole body. According to our general doctrine of sensation, parts of the body which are easily moved readily transmit the motion to the mind; but parts which are not easily moved have no effect upon the patient. The bones and hair are of the latter kind, sight and hearing of the former. Ordinary affections are neither pleasant nor painful. The impressions of sight afford an example of these, and are neither violent nor sudden. But sudden replenishments of the body cause pleasure, and sudden disturbances, as for example cuttings and burnings, have the opposite effect.
  >From sensations common to the whole body, we proceed to those of particular parts. The affections of the tongue appear to be caused by contraction and dilation, but they have more of roughness or smoothness than is found in other affections. Earthy particles, entering into the small veins of the tongue which reach to the heart, when they melt into and dry up the little veins are astringent if they are rough; or if not so rough, they are only harsh, and if excessively abstergent, like potash and soda, bitter. Purgatives of a weaker sort are called salt and, having no bitterness, are rather agreeable. Inflammatory bodies, which by their lightness are carried up into the head, cutting all that comes in their way, are termed pungent. But when these are refined by putrefaction, and enter the narrow veins of the tongue, and meet there particles of earth and air, two kinds of globules are formedone of earthy and impure liquid, which boils and ferments, the other of pure and transparent water, which are called bubbles; of all these affections the cause is termed acid. When, on the other hand, the composition of the deliquescent particles is congenial to the tongue, and disposes the parts according to their nature, this remedial power in them is called sweet.
  --
  SOCRATES: I should like, before proceeding further, to tell you how I feel about the State which we have described. I might compare myself to a person who, on beholding beautiful animals either created by the painter's art, or, better still, alive but at rest, is seized with a desire of seeing them in motion or engaged in some struggle or conflict to which their forms appear suited; this is my feeling about the State which we have been describing. There are conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear some one tell of our own city carrying on a struggle against her neighbours, and how she went out to war in a becoming manner, and when at war showed by the greatness of her actions and the magnanimity of her words in dealing with other cities a result worthy of her training and education. Now I, Critias and Hermocrates, am conscious that I myself should never be able to celebrate the city and her citizens in a befitting manner, and I am not surprised at my own incapacity; to me the wonder is rather that the poets present as well as past are no betternot that I mean to depreciate them; but every one can see that they are a tribe of imitators, and will imitate best and most easily the life in which they have been brought up; while that which is beyond the range of a man's education he finds hard to carry out in action, and still harder adequately to represent in language. I am aware that the Sophists have plenty of brave words and fair conceits, but I am afraid that being only wanderers from one city to another, and having never had habitations of their own, they may fail in their conception of philosophers and statesmen, and may not know what they do and say in time of war, when they are fighting or holding parley with their enemies. And thus people of your class are the only ones remaining who are fitted by nature and education to take part at once both in politics and philosophy. Here is Timaeus, of Locris in Italy, a city which has admirable laws, and who is himself in wealth and rank the equal of any of his fellow-citizens; he has held the most important and honourable offices in his own state, and, as I believe, has scaled the heights of all philosophy; and here is Critias, whom every Athenian knows to be no novice in the matters of which we are speaking; and as to Hermocrates, I am assured by many witnesses that his genius and education qualify him to take part in any speculation of the kind. And therefore yesterday when I saw that you wanted me to describe the formation of the State, I readily assented, being very well aware, that, if you only would, none were better qualified to carry the discussion further, and that when you had engaged our city in a suitable war, you of all men living could best exhibit her playing a fitting part. When I had completed my task, I in return imposed this other task upon you. You conferred together and agreed to entertain me to-day, as I had entertained you, with a feast of discourse. Here am I in festive array, and no man can be more ready for the promised banquet.
  HERMOCRATES: And we too, Socrates, as Timaeus says, will not be wanting in enthusiasm; and there is no excuse for not complying with your request. As soon as we arrived yesterday at the guest-chamber of Critias, with whom we are staying, or rather on our way thither, we talked the matter over, and he told us an ancient tradition, which I wish, Critias, that you would repeat to Socrates, so that he may help us to judge whether it will satisfy his requirements or not.
  --
  There is a corresponding enquiry concerning the mode of treatment by which the mind and the body are to be preserved, about which it is meet and right that I should say a word in turn; for it is more our duty to speak of the good than of the evil. Everything that is good is fair, and the fair is not without proportion, and the animal which is to be fair must have due proportion. Now we perceive lesser symmetries or proportions and reason about them, but of the highest and greatest we take no heed; for there is no proportion or disproportion more productive of health and disease, and virtue and vice, than that between soul and body. This however we do not perceive, nor do we reflect that when a weak or small frame is the vehicle of a great and mighty soul, or conversely, when a little soul is encased in a large body, then the whole animal is not fair, for it lacks the most important of all symmetries; but the due proportion of mind and body is the fairest and loveliest of all sights to him who has the seeing eye. Just as a body which has a leg too long, or which is unsymmetrical in some other respect, is an unpleasant sight, and also, when doing its share of work, is much distressed and makes convulsive efforts, and often stumbles through awkwardness, and is the cause of infinite evil to its own selfin like manner we should conceive of the double nature which we call the living being; and when in this compound there is an impassioned soul more powerful than the body, that soul, I say, convulses and fills with disorders the whole inner nature of man; and when eager in the pursuit of some sort of learning or study, causes wasting; or again, when teaching or disputing in private or in public, and strifes and controversies arise, inflames and dissolves the composite frame of man and introduces rheums; and the nature of this phenomenon is not understood by most professors of medicine, who ascribe it to the opposite of the real cause. And once more, when a body large and too strong for the soul is united to a small and weak intelligence, then inasmuch as there are two desires natural to man,one of food for the sake of the body, and one of wisdom for the sake of the diviner part of usthen, I say, the motions of the stronger, getting the better and increasing their own power, but making the soul dull, and stupid, and forgetful, engender ignorance, which is the greatest of diseases. There is one protection against both kinds of disproportion:that we should not move the body without the soul or the soul without the body, and thus they will be on their guard against each other, and be healthy and well balanced. And therefore the mathematician or any one else whose thoughts are much absorbed in some intellectual pursuit, must allow his body also to have due exercise, and practise gymnastic; and he who is careful to fashion the body, should in turn impart to the soul its proper motions, and should cultivate music and all philosophy, if he would deserve to be called truly fair and truly good. And the separate parts should be treated in the same manner, in imitation of the pattern of the universe; for as the body is heated and also cooled within by the elements which enter into it, and is again dried up and moistened by external things, and experiences these and the like affections from both kinds of motions, the result is that the body if given up to motion when in a state of quiescence is overmastered and perishes; but if any one, in imitation of that which we call the foster-mother and nurse of the universe, will not allow the body ever to be inactive, but is always producing motions and agitations through its whole extent, which form the natural defence against other motions both internal and external, and by moderate exercise reduces to order according to their affinities the particles and affections which are wandering about the body, as we have already said when speaking of the universe, he will not allow enemy placed by the side of enemy to stir up wars and disorders in the body, but he will place friend by the side of friend, so as to create health. Now of all motions that is the best which is produced in a thing by itself, for it is most akin to the motion of thought and of the universe; but that motion which is caused by others is not so good, and worst of all is that which moves the body, when at rest, in parts only and by some external agency. Wherefore of all modes of purifying and re-uniting the body the best is gymnastic; the next best is a surging motion, as in sailing or any other mode of conveyance which is not fatiguing; the third sort of motion may be of use in a case of extreme necessity, but in any other will be adopted by no man of sense: I mean the purgative treatment of physicians; for diseases unless they are very dangerous should not be irritated by medicines, since every form of disease is in a manner akin to the living being, whose complex frame has an appointed term of life. For not the whole race only, but each individualbarring inevitable accidentscomes into the world having a fixed span, and the triangles in us are originally framed with power to last for a certain time, beyond which no man can prolong his life. And this holds also of the constitution of diseases; if any one regardless of the appointed time tries to subdue them by medicine, he only aggravates and multiplies them. Wherefore we ought always to manage them by regimen, as far as a man can spare the time, and not provoke a disagreeable enemy by medicines.
  Enough of the composite animal, and of the body which is a part of him, and of the manner in which a man may train and be trained by himself so as to live most according to reason: and we must above and before all provide that the element which is to train him shall be the fairest and best adapted to that purpose. A minute discussion of this subject would be a serious task; but if, as before, I am to give only an outline, the subject may not unfitly be summed up as follows.

WORDNET














IN WEBGEN [10000/42]

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Duel Masters -- -- Studio Hibari -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Shounen -- Duel Masters Duel Masters -- The world of Duel Masters is one of five great civilizations. Through a card game, duelists can bring these worlds into existence, making what was previously abstract into reality. These skilled duelists are known as Kaijudo masters. -- -- Shobu Kirifuda is the best player at his local playground, and seeks to become a world-class master like his father. His first step on the road to conquest begins with winning a local tournament. Rather, it should have, except he is destroyed by the best Kaijudo master in the world, Knight. Shobu loses, but upon remembering the words of wisdom his father instilled into him, decides to continue on the road of becoming a duelist who can enjoy the game for what it is. And so begins his journey to victory-and as we all know, the journey is the most important part! -- -- Licensor: -- Hasbro -- TV - Oct 21, 2002 -- 20,207 5.84
Duel Masters -- -- Studio Hibari -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Shounen -- Duel Masters Duel Masters -- The world of Duel Masters is one of five great civilizations. Through a card game, duelists can bring these worlds into existence, making what was previously abstract into reality. These skilled duelists are known as Kaijudo masters. -- -- Shobu Kirifuda is the best player at his local playground, and seeks to become a world-class master like his father. His first step on the road to conquest begins with winning a local tournament. Rather, it should have, except he is destroyed by the best Kaijudo master in the world, Knight. Shobu loses, but upon remembering the words of wisdom his father instilled into him, decides to continue on the road of becoming a duelist who can enjoy the game for what it is. And so begins his journey to victory-and as we all know, the journey is the most important part! -- TV - Oct 21, 2002 -- 20,207 5.84
Shin Tenchi Muyou! -- -- AIC -- 26 eps -- Original -- Comedy Harem Romance Sci-Fi Shounen -- Shin Tenchi Muyou! Shin Tenchi Muyou! -- Tenchi Masaki heads out to tackle the big world, setting off to school in Tokyo! But not everyone is happy to hear he is moving away, as his female friends sulk and complain at the prospect of him being alone. However, Tenchi is not by himself for very long, as he soon meets a kind and compassionate girl named Sakuya Kumashiro who helps him get used to life in Tokyo. -- -- The two become close friends, but Sakuya wants more than just that, so she proclaims her love for Tenchi. This confession comes as a shock not only to Tenchi, but also the girls back home. In response, the girls decide to step up their game, and they immediately flock to Tokyo to take Tenchi for themselves. -- -- With the girls competing for his love, Tenchi must decide once and for all who the most important woman in his life is. However, he is going to have a hard time deciding, as strange events start happening that drive Tenchi further apart from his friends. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Geneon Entertainment USA -- 31,692 6.87
Tari Tari -- -- P.A. Works -- 13 eps -- Original -- Music Slice of Life School -- Tari Tari Tari Tari -- At Shirahamazaka High School, a special recital is held every year in which music students are able to showcase their talents in front of professionals and other prestigious guests. A third year, Konatsu Miyamoto desperately wants to sing in her last high school recital, but because she screwed up the year before, the vice principal has barred her from participating. -- -- That's when Konatsu comes up with a new plan to get involved; instead of joining the official choir, she'll form her own singing club with her friends! Unfortunately this proves to be harder than she imagined. Her friend Wakana Sakai, has given up on singing, for one, and Konatsu needs more than just two members. With only a month left until the recital, will Konatsu be able to find enough members for her club and actually be ready to sing at one of the most important events of the school year and graduate without regrets? -- 135,669 7.32
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ArchWiki:Contributing#The_most_important_task
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_account_of_the_most_important_and_interesting_religious_events,_which_have_transpired_from_the_commencement_of_the_Christian_era_to_the_present_time;_(IA_accountofmostimp00barb).pdf
List of photographs considered the most important
The Most Important Person
Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century



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